"You see the cartouche there. It's the official royal seal of Seti the First, I'm sure of it." Evy pointed it out to the curator, as she hovered at his desk while he examined the map.

Lillian was leaning against one wall, flipping her knife up into the air and catching it by the hilt each and every time, completely and utterly uninterested in the conversation. She loved history, especially Egyptian history, and she was very excited by the map, but she wanted to be living the adventure. She didn't want to be standing here, pretending as though some old man's opinion really mattered to her. They had a map. They had dated it. It seemed like the real deal. So why couldn't they just go off and find it yet?

Jonathon sat in the chair opposite to the curator, looking quite bored himself as he waited for a more exciting topic of conversation to be introduced.

"Perhaps." The curator replied, sparking Lillian's temper, but she bit her tongue.

"Two questions: Who the hell was Seti the First, and was he rich?" Jonathon questioned as stood and walked around the curator's desk. Lillian rolled her eyes. Jonathon was being classic Jonathon; showing his lack of Egyptian history knowledge and his love of money at the same time.

"He was the second pharaoh of the 19th dynasty and was said to be the wealthiest pharaoh of them all." Evy explained.

"Good. That's good. I like this fellow. I like him very much." Jonathon said, forcing Lillian to roll her eyes at him again. She loved her brother, but he was worse than a magpie. If he saw something shiny, he would just take it.

"We've already dated the map." She said, and when she didn't continue, Evy took over.

"It's almost 3,000 years old. And if you look at the hieratic just here…well…it's Hamunaptra." Evy explained, as the curator looked at the map under a magnifying glass.

Lillian stopped tossing her knife, replacing it in her shoe, as the thing she wanted to discuss the most had now been brought up.

"Dear God, don't be ridiculous. We're scholars, not treasure hunters." The curator said, leaning back in his seat and resting his clasped hands on his stomach as he looked up at Evy.

"Speak for yourself, old man. I'm not a scholar, I'm an explorer." Lillian interjected, before he had a chance to continue what Lillian assumed would have been a long-winded rant.

"Be that as it may, Hamunaptra's a myth told by ancient Arab storytellers to amuse Greek and Roman tourists." He replied, shooting a tired look in her direction. She rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck from side to side, as an intimidation technique. It never worked with the curator, but she would never give up trying.

"I know all the silly blather that the city is protected by the curse of a mummy nonsense, but my research has led me to believe that the city itself may have actually existed." Evy said, and Lillian could see the excitement in her features.

"Are we talking about the Hamunaptra?" Jonathon questioned, peering up at Evie as he bent over the curator's shoulder to see the map.

"Yes, Jonathon. The City of the Dead where the earliest pharaohs are said to have hid the wealth of Egypt." Lillian informed him, as she lowered herself, in one quick, fluid motion, onto one of the chairs in front of the curators desk.

"Yes, in a big underground treasure chamber," Jonathon said. When the curator snorted, Jonathon whirred round on him. "Come on. Everybody knows the story. The entire necropolis was rigged to sink into the sand on Pharaoh's command. Turn of a switch and the whole place would disappear into the sand with the treasure."

Lillian was so immersed in her brother's enthusiasm and actual historical knowledge, she didn't see the curator lift the map up and place it against the flame of one of the lit candles on his desk.

"As the Americans would say, it's all fairy tales and hokum-" He yelled at the end, and drew Lillian's attention. The map was lit up and the curator dropped it to the floor at her feet. She quickly patted it out with her foot, and glared at him. "Oh my goodness. Look at that!"

All three Carnahan's dropped to their knees and inspected the map that was in Jonathon's hands. It was singed on one end, and the area that had the part with the lost city was burnt off.

"You've burnt it! You've burnt the part with the lost city." Jonathon lamented.

"It's for the best I'm sure. Many men have wasted their lives in the foolish pursuit of Hamunaptra. No one's ever found it. Most have never returned." The curator said in a weirdly ominous voice that simply made the Carnahan's more curious about the map and the location to which it pertained.

Lillian, being the most curious, took the map from Jonathon's hands, and saluted the curator.

"I suppose you're right. It is a dangerous task that we are not equipped or prepared to partake in. We'll just go and leave you to your business. Come on, let's go." She said, not waiting for her brother and sister to even get up off the floor before she turned on her heel and quickly left the annoying old man's office.

She would grill Jonathon and he'd tell her where he really got the box from, and then she'd find a way to find Hamunaptra. To quench her curiosity and her thirst for adventure.

Interrogating Jonathon led the Carnahan's to the local prison. Lillian wanted to be able to say she was surprised, but it was her brother. Nothing about this surprised her because it was her brother.

"Come! Step over the threshold. Welcome to Cairo Prison, my humble home." The prison warden welcomed them as they followed him through the doors into the actual prison. It was pretty much what Lillian had expected. Dirty, smelly and full of unattractive criminals. Although, the table where things were being sold, she hadn't expected.

"You told me that you got it on a dig down in Thebes." Evy accused Jonathon, as she gripped his arm. Evy had been straightening the library up a little bit more when Lillian had interrogated their brother, so she hadn't understood where they were until just then.

"Well, I was mistaken."

"You lied." Evy snapped at him.

"He lies to everybody. What makes us so special?" Lillian questioned, as she walked ahead of the pair.

"We are his sisters."

"Which makes you both more gullible." Jonathon replied, and Evy knew he had her there. Though it can't have been much of a victory for him.

"Jonathon, you stole it from a drunk at the local casbah!" Evy said, suddenly refusing to lose their argument.

"Picked his pocket, actually. So I don't think-" Jonathon said, turning them around. Lillian stopped and waited as Evy spun them around again and continued walking forward towards the jail cells.

"What exactly is this man in prison for?" Evy questioned, as she approached her sister and the warden.

"This I don't know, but when I heard you were coming, I asked him that myself." The warden replied, leaning an arm on the jail cell, and called to some other prison guard in Arabic.

"And what did he say?" Evy asked.

"He said he was just looking for a good time." The warden answered. Lillian smirked at his words.

"I think I like the man already." She said aloud to no one in particular, but Evy shot her a glare.

The glare held a warning. It said 'no funny business or else'. Evy knew that Lillian wouldn't just jump into bed with the man, but Lillian wasn't as reserved as Evy was with her body and how she presented it. Evy wore long skirts and cardigans, and Lillian wore trousers and vest tops with a thin shirt over the top. They were polar opposites in terms of personality and sometimes that worried Evy, as she was very careful and Lillian…wasn't.

The door to the cell opened and two men struggled to contain a third as he rushed forward to the bars, causing the warden to step back. Lillian noted that the man looked slightly feral, but was still quite handsome under the unshaved stubble and long, unruly hair.

"This-This is the man you stole it from?" Evt questioned Jonathon quietly.

"Yes, exactly. So why don't we go sniff out a spot of tiffin-" Jonathon started to find an excuse to leave, but was cut off by the considerably handsome prisoner who had been forced onto his knees.

"Who are you? And who are the broads?" He questioned.

"'Broad'?" Evy repeated in disbelief at his lack of manners. Lillian was just as insulted.

"'Broad'? Do I look like a 'broad' to you, pal?" She demanded. Jonathon chuckled.

"That's true. I'm surprised you aren't locked in there with him."

"By rights, you should be too, Jon." She retorted.

"I'm just a local sort of missionary chap, spreading the good word and all that," Jonathon said, as he hesitantly stepped closer to the metal bars that separated him from the criminal. He reached back until he caught hold of Lillian's arm and tugged her forward. "These are my sisters, Lillian and Evy."

"How do you do?" Evy questioned, out of pure politeness. The man's eyes travelled to the other sister, and she just nodded at him. He hadn't heard her speak yet, and with the way she was dressed and how completely uncaring and at ease she looked, his interest had been piqued.

"Oh well, guess they're not a total loss." He said.

"I beg you pardon." Evy said, staring at the man in disgust. The warden shouted in Arabic at someone behind them, then muttered something about being right back. Jonathon sensed that the man would respond better to a woman, so turned to Lillian. He would have turned to Evy, but now she was silently fuming about the chap's blatant sexism.

"Ask him about the box." Jonathon whispered to her, and Lillian nodded a reply.

"We found…" Lillian started, before she noticed the man was no longer paying attention to them. Instead of being polite about, she whistled loudly and his eyes snapped back to hers immediately. "Thanks. We found your puzzle box and we wanted to ask you some questions about it."

"No."

"No." Evy repeated the word as though she had no idea what it meant.

"No. You came to ask me about Hamunaptra." He said loudly, and Jonathon winced beside Evy, and Lillian stepped forward slightly, crossing her arms over chest.

"How do you know the box pertains to Hamunaptra?" She questioned.

"Because that's where I was when I found it. I was there." He replied.

Jonathon decided to get brave, and stepped closer to the bars. Lillian winced, already knowing that it was a bad move.

"But how do we know that's not a load of pig's wallow?"

"Do I know you?" The man questioned, and Lillian knew she'd been right.

"No, I've just got one of those faces." And suddenly, Jonathon was on the floor, with Evy kneeling beside him, and the man was getting struck on the back as punishment for punching Lillian's brother in the face. Lillian stepped over her brother and moved closer to the bars.

"You were actually at Hamunaptra?" Lillian asked, as she stared down at him.

"Yeah, I was there." He said, smiling cockily up at her.

"You swear?"

"Every damn day."

Lillian didn't reply to that. She merely narrowed her eyes at him, until he said what she wanted to hear.

"I was there. Seti's place. City of the Dead." He replied, waving his hands around, the chain on his handcuffs clinking with the movement.

"Do you think you could tell me how to get there?" Lillian questioned, though it wasn't really a question and more of a demand. He just blinked owlishly at her, as though those words were the last he thought would come out of her mouth (which is weird, because if someone asked you if you knew about Hamunaptra and you told them you'd been there, how could you not expect them to ask you where it is?). She looked over her shoulder, before she leaned in a bit more. "The exact location."

"You want to know?"

"I wouldn't of asked if I didn't." She retorted, leaning closer.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Obviously."

He gestured for her to move closer so she did, and he grabbed her chin and pressed his lips against hers roughly. Lillian almost saw that happening, but let it anyway. He was behind bars, probably sharing a cell with a lot of other foul smelling criminals. One kiss couldn't kill her to spare.

"Then get me the hell out of here!" He said, after he'd pulled away.

"That one was free. Next time, it's going to cost you a body part." Lillian said quietly, before he was grabbed.

He fought against the guards long enough to say one last thing.

"Do it, lady!" Then a guard clubbed his hand, and he let go of the bar he had been gripped and they dragged him back inside just in time for the warden to arrive again.

"Where are they taking him?" Lillian asked, gesturing to the now closed door.

"To be hanged. Apparently, he had a very good time."

Lillian stood just behind the prison warden and Evy as the hanging began. Her mouth was set in a frown, as she watched the man who had kissed her forced to march up to the gallows.

"I'll give you 100 pounds to save this man's life." Evy tried to barter with the warden. Lillian sighed. 100 pounds wouldn't be enough.

"Madam, I would pay 100 pounds just to see him hang."

"2-200 pounds!" Evy exclaimed.

"Proceed!"

"300 pounds!"

Lillian was starting to get a little nervous and impatient and her trigger finger was getting an itch that only pulling aforementioned trigger would scratch. The hangman put the noose around the man's neck and tightened it, before he spoke to him. Lillian couldn't hear the exchange, but the hangman soon looked up at the prison warden and spoke in Arabic to him.

"Of course we don't let him go!" The warden replied.

The hangman smacked the prisoner on the back of the head, before he walked away.

"500 pounds!" Evy upped the ante, and got the warden's attention. He told his men to wait, before he gave Evy his attention.

"And what else? I'm a very lonely man." He said, gripping Evy's thigh. Just as Lillian was about to pull out one of her pistols, Evy smacked his hand away with her book, causing the rest of the crowd in the prison to laugh at his expense.

This clearly wasn't the response he wanted, so he gestured to the hangman to continue, and he pulled down the lever that opened the trap door underneath the man's feet. Lillian barely registered Evy's cry, as her eyes were focused on the man as he hung from his neck. It hadn't snapped, so now they were forced to watch him strangle to death. Lillian wanted to whip out her gun and fire, and get him down that way, but Evy had warned her not to. Something about not ending up in prison herself.

"Ha, ha! His neck did not break!" His words sent some of the other prisoners into a frenzy, but Lillian wanted to punch the warden in the face. "Oh, I'm so sorry! Now we must watch him strangle to death."

"He knows the location to Hamunaptra." Lillian didn't even realize that the words had left her mouth until her brain recognised them as her own. Evy stared at her, but knew that it was the only way to save the man's life now.

"You lie!"

"She would never!" Evy protested on Lillian's behalf.

"Are you telling me this filthy, godless son of a pig knows where to find the City of the Dead?" The warden questioned.

"Yes!" Lillian snapped at him. The man's face was bright red now from what she could see from the balcony.

"Truly?"

"And if you cut him down, we will give you ten percent." Lillian said, hurriedly.

"Fifty percent."

"Twenty."

"Forty."

"Thirty." Evy raised the bar.

"Twenty-five." The warden said, lowering it again.

"Deal!" Lillian snapped. The warden groaned and as soon as she knew that they had won, she whipped out her gun and fired. The bullet whizzed through the air, cut through the rope and landed in the wooden beam just behind it. The man dropped to the ground, and began gasping for air.

The warden turned to stare at her, before appraising her.

"That was a very good shot."

"Trick shots are my speciality." She replied, walking to the edge of the balcony, so she had a better view of the man, the gun still in her hand. He rolled over and stared up at her, and found it in him to smile as she saluted him, before she stepped back and disappeared from view.

This was going to be interesting, he thought.