The Order if the Giza Key
Chapter 5: Headquarters
Far away from the car now travelling toward Cairo, a figure sat alone in a darkened room. The room was empty, except for a chair and a small desk, behind which she was sitting. She was gazing at blueprints for what looked like a library, illuminated by a dim lamp. Just as she heaved a frustrated sigh and began to roll up the papers, the door of the room burst open and a heavyset man came in, holding two other men by the scruffs of their necks. One was thin and greasy looking; the other was stocky and looked very anxious. The man holding them tossed them roughly into the room, gave a small bow to the woman behind the desk and left, closing the door with a snap. The woman gave them an icy sneer.
"Why have you come back empty handed? Where is it? Didn't you find it? Speak!"
The stocky man opened and closed his mouth several times, looking terrified. The second man cleared his throat and began to speak, looking angry.
"You can't blame us, we didn't know the Carters were going to be there! They had other help, too. The informant told us that it would just be the girl and her stupid old grandfather!"
The woman paled, but when she spoke, her voice was calm. "Are you saying that they have it? After months of planning, you let a little girl and a feeble old relic take it?" As she spoke, her voice was becoming steadily louder. "That Key is the single most important thing in order to keep this operation running and YOU LET IT SLIP THROUGH YOU SLIMY LITTLE FINGERS!" The two men looked at each other hopelessly as the woman raged on. Then, the stocky man timidly put up his hand, and the woman abruptly stopped her pacing and ranting to stare at him. "What, Mort?"
"They didn't actually find it," he began, "It was these other people, but I didn't recognize them. They left with the Carter girl and her grandfather, though. We tried to stop them, boss, we really did!"
The woman glared at them both then began to speak, her voice determinedly calm. "I will give you one more chance. As soon as I have word from my informant, I'm sending you two after it. I had two of my best men search their little hideout, but they found nothing. I want you to find them! And I want you to figure out who those people were! If you fail me again, make sure you come back. It would just be so much trouble to hunt you down and then kill you. If you come back it'll save us all a lot of running around." She sneered at the terrified faces of her cronies and then bellowed, "GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!"
Laraya was dozing fitfully and awoke to find herself in the back of her father's car. It took her a moment to remember all of the day's events, but then they flooded back into her mind, each thought cascading over the other. She sighed inwardly and looked around. Cole's head was drooped onto her shoulder. The rest of the car was silent; they were all either asleep or lost in thought. Laraya gazed down at Cole, and smiled. She could not help noticing how much she liked him. Sure, he could be completely annoying, but there was something about him... She found herself in a daydream, going over their meeting in her head. She suddenly shook herself out of her reverie and realised what she was feeling. She tried to stop her thoughts and moved Cole's head from her shoulder roughly. He woke up and shook his head, murmuring. "Are we there yet?"
"No," said Laraya gruffly. "Go back to sleep."
There came a mumble of consent and he fell asleep immediately, his head dropping back onto her shoulder. Laraya looked annoyed for a moment, then softened. She slowly and tentatively lowered her head onto Cole's, smiled to herself, and finally fell asleep.
Cole awoke several hours later as the car went over a bump in the road. He shook himself awake, rubbing his eyes. "What time is it?" he asked blearily.
"It's a little after three a.m.," said Jack from the front seat. "We're almost in Cairo. Can you give us directions, Kalira?"
Cole turned and saw that his mother was fully awake. "Go straight through the city down the main road. Then turn down the last street before you reach the turnoff for Giza," she said.
It took them twenty minutes to get all the way through Cairo. When they turned down the road that Kalira had indicated, they saw it went on for several miles. When they were almost at the end, Kalira told Jack to stop, her eyes scanning the derelict houses. "That one," she said, pointing at a miniscule shack on the left side of the street. "That's our new headquarters."
The others stared at it in disbelief. It couldn't have been more than twenty square feet. "Uh, mom?" said Cole. "Are you sure you've got the right place? I mean, how are we supposed to fit in there, let alone work!"
Kalira smiled mischievously, her eyes twinkling. "Oh, I think we can all fit. Everyone out!"
The group climbed out of the car, wondering if Kalira had lost her mind. She walked over to the hut and swung open a rickety door. It was completely bare, but a door at the other end indicated a second room. Cole walked over and tried to open it. "It's locked," he said, rattling the handle.
"It's a combination lock," said Kalira, squeezing past her son. They watched, amazed, as she felt along the wall to the right of the door and finally found a small switch. She flicked it and instantly a minute keypad popped out of the wall to the left of the door. She typed for a few seconds, then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the keypad zoomed back into the wall and the door gave a click. Kalira rotated the knob once more and this time, it opened. What they saw gave them a shock. It was an elevator.
"No way," said Laraya in a hushed voice. "It's underground?"
Kalira smiled widely. "That's right! This little hovel is just to throw everyone off the trail."
Cole was almost hopping with excitement. "Well, come on! Let's get down there!"
The rest of their group clamoured in, casting each other amazed looks. Once they had all piled in, Mathias, who was nearest to the panel on the wall, pressed the down button. They started moving, each of them imagining what awaited them. Finally, they stopped moving and the doors opened. They all stepped out and looked around in wonder. It was everything you could ask for. They were in a large, square room with a very high ceiling. In the centre of the room was a set of squashy furniture, and past it they could see a spotless kitchen and dinning room. There were doors leading off the left side of the room, possible bedrooms. On the right side was a wide doorway, and through it they could see a laboratory, equipped with a wide array of instruments and computers. The walls were littered with a vast quantity of drawers and cupboards.
At the far end of the room was a small doorway, and Cole noticed that it had no door handle. Before he could think of what could be behind it, his mother's voice drowned out his thoughts.
"Now, I originally thought that it would only be Cole and I in here, so there are only two bedrooms. But there should be a spare room. But that still means we'll have to double up. Cole can stay with me. Mathias, why don't you and Jack share a room. That leaves Laraya and…Daniel." She cleared her throat uncomfortably and then said quickly "Alright! Let's get moving."
Cole followed his mother into the room closest to the kitchen and stared around in astonishment. There were two beds, two dressers and a large closet. There was also a large television with a DVD player lying beneath it. A door led off into a large bathroom.
Kalira smiled at the stunned look on her son's face. "Do you like it?"
Cole opened and closed his mouth, at a complete loss for words. "How did you arrange all of this?" he finally croaked out.
His mother smiled. "I have some important contacts that helped us out. We're all free to stay here for as long as we need. It's one of the most secure places I could find."
Cole finally stopped gawking at his bedroom and unpacked quickly. He wanted a chance to explore the rest of the house before everyone else. He left and went across the room to the laboratory, finding Laraya already there.
"This place is amazing," exclaimed Laraya. "Look at this lab! We have everything we need here! This is perfect, absolutely perfect."
"Yeah…perfect," said Cole. But he wasn't looking at the lab.