Chapter Two: Visitors of all Kinds

Bianca was still fuming when she reached the shop. Her brows seemed to have been permanently knitted to form her scowl and her lips were pursed tightly together. By the time she had unlocked the door and stepped inside she had gone over everything that she had done and every possible alternative that would have been better at least million times better. She stormed through the front room, only pausing a split second to throw her now empty carpet bag onto her desk, and went straight to her living quarters.

The room was modest and clean and just the way that she wanted it. The only real furniture were her rickety old bed and the dresser that held her limited wardrobe. A few photographs here and there on the walls added the slight personal touch that made it all her own.

She slumped down on the bed as soon as she entered the room, letting her cane fall to the floor with a 'bang'. Running her hand over her hair in a vain attempt to smooth down the fly aways that had already escaped, Bianca took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She had reacted badly. She knew that, and she was sure that everyone else that had been in the room had known that.

'I never should have walked out of the meeting like that.' she thought as she cradled her head in her hands. 'I wouldn't be surprised if Miss O'Connell came by to tell me that she's not interested in dealing business with drama queens that pick fights with her brother.' Bianca's jaws tightened at the thought of him. 'Even if her brother happens to be the biggest prat I've met in years.'

One of the pictures on her dresser caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She reached over and grabbed the small metal frame and gazed down at the image inside. The face of a man smiled back up at her, showing his bright white teeth fully. With his graying hair and the wrinkles that were just beginning to form he looked like he could be anyone's father.

'You should have seen me in there, Louis. I botched this one up so badly you would never ever believe it.' She sighed and placed the picture down on the mattress beside her. 'Maybe it's better that you weren't there to see that train wreck.'

Flinging her arms out to the side in what she hoped was the most dramatic manner possible, she fell back onto the bed and closed her eyes. The old mattress groaned in protests as she wiggled slightly, trying to find the one comfortable spot left. After a few more calming breaths to clear her mind, she drifted off to sleep.

It was very early morning when she was awoken by the soft sound of bells ringing from the front room. The only light that filtered into the room came from the liver of sun that had just crossed over the horizon and the well lit houses that surrounded the shop. She shot up, much to the protest of her knee, and looked around wildly. She had locked the door behind her, she was sure of it, and the 'closed' sign was hung predominantly from the front window like it had been all week.

She held her breath as she waited for another noise. Seconds passed excruciatingly slowly and the silence seemed almost unearthly. Even the hustle of the busy outside streets seemed more muffled than usual. She didn't hear anything more.

'You're being silly! There's no one there! Why on earth would anyone even think about breaking into a dirty little run down-' Her mental scolding was cut short by the sound of the floor boards creaking in the next room.

Her hand flew to her mouth to stop the squeak from escaping her lips and she seemed to jump right out of her skin.

'Oh my god, there's someone there. There's someone in the shop. There's someone in the shop and they're going to kill me.' Scenarios raced through her mind like lighting, each one more gruesome than the last until she was bolted out of her mind by something that sounded like a whisper just outside the door.

Her eyes darted around the room, searching for anything that she could use as a weapon. She came up with nothing. With no better ideas, she slowly reached down and pried her cane from the floor. She almost had it completely in her hands when she leaned too far out, causing the bed to let out what seemed to be the loudest creak it had ever made. Her heart plummeted down to meet with her stomach.

The intruders seemed to have given up on stealth and came barging into her bedroom all at once. In a moments time. she was facing two enormous men leering down at her. Dressed all in black and with what seemed to be at least a pistol for each limb, they looked like something straight out of a story book.

Bianca scrambled back onto the bed and held the cane out like a sword in front of her. "Please. I don't have anything! Please just go!" she pleaded with the men.

One, the largest of the two barked an order to the others in a language that she didn't recognize. The other immediately leapt into action, swiping her weapon away and grabbing her by the arm and pulling her from the mattress. She gasped in pain as her feet hit the floor and her leg twisted to the side, sending stabs through her entire body. The men didn't give her time to gather herself before shoving her to the side as their leader gave them more orders. Bianca barely had time to brace herself before her knees gave out and she fell to the ground.

She clenched her eyes closed in a mixture of pain and fear as she heard the men moving around her, all of them shouting at the others. Bianca watched as the men tore into her belongings, tossing her dresser drawers open and spilling out its content, sweeping every single item from her shelves and pulling picture frames from the walls. There must have been more than the two because she soon heard the sound of crashing coming from the main room. She twisted around just in time to see one of the shelves holding the merchandise falling to the floor, its contents scattering everywhere and most shattering into a million pieces. Bianca had to bite down on her bottom lip tightly to stop her from uttering the words that fought to jump out.

The rage that flowed through her was silenced at the feeling of a rough hand clenched down on her shoulder and being spun around to face her assailant. She looked up at the man's scarred and tanned face with complete, utter terror. After what seemed to have been ages of waiting, he finally spoke. "Where is it?"

"What?" The word barely came out as a faint whisper. She watched as the man's eyes glinted with something that seemed to be a mixture of impatience and something far darker.

He turned and yelled something in his strange tongue towards the main room and his words were almost immediately followed by the crash of yet another shelve falling to the floor. No. Those are mine. I need them.'

Bianca was struggling to stand and run to save the artifacts before the thought even had a chance to register as a very bad idea. The man clenched down on her shoulder hard enough to make her yelp in pain before he pushed her back down to the ground. He seemed to struggle with forming the words before he spoke again. "Tell us and we won't have to hurt anything else."

She was shaking by that point, her hands vibrating against the floor and her teeth chattering almost audibly. "I don't know what you're talking about! Please, you have to believe me!" she pleaded. "Just leave!"

His lips turned up into a sneer at the sight of her groveling and it almost seemed as though he would strike her. Whatever he was going to do was cut short by yet another man appearing in the doorway. After a quick nod to their leader, he began to speak rapidly. An actual growl sounded from the leader at whatever he had been told.

"One more time. Where is the stone?" the man asked her the same way you might speak to a very dull child. Recognition sparked in her brain. 'Stone? He couldn't mean...Could he?'

"W-was it black? With strange markings all over?" Bianca looked up almost hopefully at the man. When he nodded it felt as though a weight had been lifted up from her chest. "I took it to be appraised! Is that all you wanted? I swear I don't have it."

The man instantly dropped the hand that had been grasping her shoulder and took a few steps back. The men that had been searching her room stopped what they were doing and looked expectantly at the leader. "Where did you take it?"

Oh, god. What do they want it for? Should I tell them? I could lie and tell them the wrong place! They would leave, but what about when they find out that I lied?' Doubt floated to the front of Bianca's mind for a moment before her self-preservation won out. "The Cairo Museum."

The man looked satisfied. He turned to the two men still in the room and gave them their orders before vanishing from the room just as quickly as her had appeared. Bianca could only sit in shock as she heard a few final crashes of the last of her items being thrown to the floor. What did I just do?'

She was so in shock that she hardly noticed it when one of the men simply walked behind her and bludgeoned her with the hilt of his dagger. She was unconscious before she even hit the ground.

"Honestly, I don't understand why we're doing this."

Rick gripped the steering wheel even tighter than usual as he made the sharp turn onto the next city block. His passenger had asked the same question about fifty different ways since they had piled into the car. "Because Evy told us to. She said that it was an emergency so we're going."

Jonathan rolled his eyes and resisted the urge to make a joke about his sister having her husband on a tighter leash than he thought, and instead settled on "Well, yes, I know that's why you're up at this ungodly hour in the morning, but I still can't see what that has to do with me."

His brother in-law didn't answer and instead chose to concentrate on the road in front of them and blocking out the Englishmen's voice. Jonathan sighed and rested his head on his hand in hopes of maybe catching up on the sleep that he was missing at that exact moment. He hadn't seen six o'clock in the morning in quite some time and he was hardly ever sober enough to really remember it.

The city around them seemed to be on the verge of waking up. Shop keepers were opening up their doors and setting up their wares and constructing their outdoor market-like tents. A few lone men seemed to be staggering home from the local dive of a pub. Jonathan would have traded most anything to be one of them instead of being dragged off to who knows where to ask a woman that he didn't like about something he cared nothing about.

The silence of the morning and his driving partner seemed to unnerve the man so he attempted to start up a conversation once again. "What on earth could Evy want with the girl that couldn't wait?"

"Look, all I know is that Evy was working late last night, trying to translate some new artifact or something, and the next thing I know she's waking me up and telling me that she needs to speak with some Chevalier lady right that instant. If you think that I wanted to be chauffeur for the day, you've got it all wrong."

Instead of doing what Rick had hoped and simply dropping the topic and returning to the comfortable quiet, Jonathan decided to keep going. "Did she tell you about the woman that we're going to meet? She's a hellcat if I ever saw one. She snapped at me just for being polite! Although, she did sound a bit French, so that might explain it."

Rick chose not to tell him that Evy had already filled him in with all the details from their meeting the afternoon before and had told him that she would have congratulated the woman for standing up to her brother if she hadn't run from the room so fast. Instead, he chose to change the subject completely. "I think this is the street Evy said it would be."

He expertly turned the car down the one way street. He took an apprehensive glance at the piles of trash that crowded the sides and at the rundown buildings that surrounded them. It was most definitely not the first place you would look for an antique shop.

Just as he was about to turn the car around and escape the alley way, he caught sight of the weathered sign hanging above one of the stores that read "The Crimson Diamond." He pulled the vehicle off to the side as much as he could in what seemed to be a six foot wide space and jumped out. Jonathan followed suit.

Rick leaned down and tried to peer through the dusty front windows, but the only thing that greeted him was his own reflection. He glanced back at the sulking Jon before knocking a few times on the door. When no one answered him, he knocked a few times before it turned more into pounding. "I did not drive all the way here before the sun was up just to turn around." he muttered under his breath.

Finally, he gave up on formalities and twisted the door knob. To his surprise, the door swung open as he did and the cheery chime above welcomed them into the shop.

"She's not going to like us just barging in like this, you know. I wouldn't be surprised if...my God."

Jonathan's words trailed off to a finish as what he was looking at finally clicked in his mind. Every single shelf that had once filled the room now lay on the ground with their contents spilling out. Bits and pieces of glass and ceramics were scattered across the floor along with hundreds of jade beads that had been freed from their string. It was as though a war had passed through the room.

While Jonathan stood in the doorway simply taking in the sight before him, Rick jumped into action. "Ms. Chevalier? Anybody here?" He called out as he moved towards the back, taking care not to step on or damage anything even further. When he didn't get any reply from the store's owner, he continued father into the store until he came to the back room. He pushed open the flimsy wooden door, cringing at the screeching noise that it made, and stepped in.

The first thing he saw was the body laying on the floor, angled and twisted like a broken doll. In the few seconds that it took to move to her he noticed that this room had been destroyed just like the previous had been. As he knelt down next to the woman he heard Jonathan move in behind him. Rick pressed his fingers gingerly to her throat and let out a sigh of relief when he felt the faint, but still present, pulse.

"What the hell happened here?" Jonathan mused as he watched his brother in law pull Bianca up so that her head was supported more and started to try and rouse her. He took a moment to take in the state of the room. Clothing and ruined shreds of cloth had been tossed around like confetti, and the mirror that must have once hung from the wall was now more like something you would see in a carnival fun house. A small noise alerted him and drew his attention back to the woman.

She looked so completely different from the woman that he had bumped heads with just the other afternoon that he had a hard time believing it was really her. Her former scowl had been replaced by a soft look of peace and the strawberry hair that had been so tame yesterday now tumbled free in tight ringlets. Before he had a chance to observe her anymore, she rolled her head to the side and her eyes began to flicker behind their lids.

He heard Rick say "Ms. Chevalier. Come on, you have to wake up now." in a voice that Jon could tell held forced calmness.

Bianca opened her eyes and stared blankly up at the two men. 'What happened?' her thoughts came slowly as if her brain had been filled with fog. 'Who is that? Where am I? A hospital? But they don't look like doctors...'

Her focus seemed to jump between the two, confusion building up until she settled on Jonathan. The memories clicked together in her mind and her gaze steeled. She attempted to spring into a sitting position only to be pushed back down by the man that was supporting her.

"Hey! Easy there! My name is Rick. Rick O'Connell; Evelyn's husband." the man said. She tore her eyes away from the familiar man and focused on the second. She tried to find her voice, to ask him what had happened to her and why that rummy rat was within three yards from her, but all she could do was lay there with her mouth hanging open like a gasping fish. In a last ditch attempt to save face she decided to at least close her mouth.

She managed to get out a garbled "My head hurts." The man she didn't recognize reached out towards her skull, waited for her nod of approval, and gingerly felt the skin under her hair. She winced in pain as he brushed over a sore spot. Thankfully, there wasn't any blood on his fingers when he pulled them back.

"You have quite the bump growing back there, but nothing too bad. Can you sit up?" She nodded yes and pushed herself into a sitting position with her back resting against the bed frame. After the vertigo had faded, she saw what had become of her once pristine room. 'Oh my god...' Memories fought to surface and remnants of emotions bobbed up. Fear mixed with guilt spread across her heart even if she didn't know why.

"Attagirl! Just don't knock your head anymore and you'll be right as rain," Said Jonathan as he knelt down beside her. She shot him a scowl before returning her attention back to the man.

Do you know what happened?"

"We were hoping you would tell us that." He looked around the room and at the damage that had been done. "It looks like you either had quite the party here or someone broke in."

She shook her head absently as more memories bubbled up: men in black, knives, and crashing sounds. "I...I think someone was was here. A lot of them. They wanted something from me, I think." she trailed off as she fought to remember. Suddenly, it all came together in her mind. "Oh, no."

The men glanced at each other in confusion at her comment. Bianca reached up and rubbed at her head as if she could banish the headache that was beginning to form. "The tablet. That's what they wanted! They wanted that black stone that I found the other day!"

An unsettling feeling began to grow in Rick's stomach as he processed this new information. "This wouldn't happen to be the same tablet that my wife has at this moment, would it?"

She swallowed audibly. "Yes."

"But I know that you didn't tell the scary men that broke in, destroyed your home and knocked you unconscious where to find the tablet, right?" His voice practically dripped venom.

Bianca found that the ability to speak had left her once again and she was reduced to staring at a speck on the floor. Rick stood up abruptly. "Come on, Jonathan."

Bianca shot her gaze up to look at him. "What? You're just leaving? What am I supposed to do?" Her voice sounded high pitched and whiny even to herself.

"Well, Miss, right now I really couldn't care less what you do because I have to go save my wife from men that you set on her." Her eyes widened as he walked out of the room and Jonathan rose to go after him. She caught his gaze as he did so, but instead of the sympathy that she had hoped for, all she got was a shrug of he shoulders from the man.

She heard Rick moving through the shop, this time not even bothering to step over or around the pieces of artifacts that lay scattered in his path.

"Hey!" she yelled out as Jon left the room as well. She scrambled to grab her cane from where it had been thrown hours earlier and quickly got to her feet. Her bad leg screamed in pain as she tried to hobble after the two; it refused to bend at all after a night of being abused and twisted. "You can't leave me here!"

She watched as Rick paused at the front door, his hand resting on the handle. He didn't turn to look at her as he spoke. "Don't take this the wrong way, lady, but why the hell should I do anything to help you?"

Thoughts of what to say to the American sprung to her mind. Because her life line was in shambles. Because she might be responsible for harm to his wife and she would never be able the forgive herself if she didn't at least try. Because she had seen the men before and might be helpful because of that. Because she didn't want to be alone.

"I can help."

She could see the man thinking things over in his head for a few excruciatingly long moments. "Alright. Hurry up."

And with that, Bianca followed the strangers out of the shop and into the awakening Cairo street.

I am so sorry about the long wait for this chapter! The flash drive that held this one and the next three chapters along with the planning was broken last week so it might take a while to get them rewritten and edited. Thank you everyone for the great feedback that I got from the last one! I know that there's a lot that I can improve in this one, so don't be afraid to let me know.

Edit: Apparently my computer has started changing random punctuation marks into equal signs. It's a little game that me and Computer like to play; it keeps me on my toes. If you notice any thing odd like that I would love it if you let me know. Thanks!