Hillary felt around the perimeter of the wall, his hands seeking any chink in the mortar that would serve as a handhold. But the stones were smoothly joined, and slick from the underground damp. He only succeeded in scraping his fingers raw.
"Any luck?" Bryce's voice sounded from the dark behind him.
"No," Hillary ground out. "Slick as snot. Not a handhold."
There was silence for a moment. "Bugger, mate," Bryce said quietly. "This is all my fault, innit."
"It's my fault, as well. I believe that Laura may give both of our corpses the sack."
xxxxxx
It had seemed like such a reasonable idea at the time.
xxxxxx
Lara was out on as routine a job as she was ever engaged in. She had been investigating a small pharonic tomb that had been uncovered, explored, and dismissed. The dimensions of the mapped rooms had not added up, and she had caught a flight to Cairo, excited about the prospect of finding a chamber unmolested by tomb robbers. Given the diminutive size of the tomb, there was unlikely to be a treasure trove inside, but the historical value of the find might be significant, and Lara was determined to be the finder.
Given her enthusiasm, it was understandable that she would miss her first scheduled check-in. Missing her second, though, was cause for worry, and when she missed her third, neither Bryce nor Hillary was willing to sit around anymore.
"No answer on her cellular phone?"
"No. And would you stop that?" Hillary abandoned his restless pacing and sat on the edge of Bryce's desk. Bryce studied Hillary from behind the shoes Bryce had up on the desk and crossed. "We have to go after her."
"No need for both of us to go. You stay here and look after the place."
Bryce snorted. "I can't look after a bleedin' house plant, man. I'll be of more use with you."
Maybe Hillary should have argued more, but Bryce did have a point. "Pack one bag. Let's see what flight we can catch."
Six hours later, they were in a rented Jeep southeast of Cairo, following the GPS coordinates they had found in Lara's notes. Bryce fidgeted as sand ran down the neck of his T-shirt and filled his trainers. Hillary's khakis and over-ankle boots were better suited to the terrain.
"Where'd you get that kit? Looks like bleedin' army gear."
"It's bleedin' army gear." Hillary pointed. "Look."
It was nothing spectacular; in fact, it was barely visible. A square entrance protruded slightly from earth that was as red-brown as the dusty stone.
They stopped outside and disembarked. Bryce took out his handheld and pulled up the official map of the tomb. "Fifty steps down, and then a hard left to the main corridor."
Hillary led the way with a torch. "I don't like it, Bryce. This place shouldn't be sitting open and empty like this."
"Main chamber on the left," Bryce continued stubbornly. "Lara thought there might be an entrance to a secret chamber in the annex. A few more meters ahead and to the right."
The tomb was eerily silent. Footsteps in the ancient dust showed that it had been recently disturbed, but not a soul was present at the moment, and the silence seemed to push the dusty stone walls inward. Hillary swallowed and ducked through the wooden scaffold that had been erected in the annex's doorframe.
The annex was a plain room, with a small stone sarcophagus at the far wall. Bryce walked towards it.
"Don't touch that. The pharaohs were infamously paranoid; there are bound to be booby traps."
Bryce sighed. "Look, man, we need to find Lara. She thought the entrance to the secret chamber was in here. We need to find it." He shifted the cover off of the sarcophagus as Hillary cringed. Nothing happened.
"Blow me, mate, look at this!" Hillary walked over and looked in. A small staircase led down into inky blackness below.
"Well, here goes..." "Wait!" They spoke simultaneously and acted simultaneously, Bryce stepping onto the staircase as Hillary grabbed his arm. If Hillay hadn't been overbalanced and had the torch in one hand, he might have been able to hold Bryce up as the staircase folded into a slippery stone ramp; but as it was, they both went flying. The staircase/ramp ended in a dirt floor, but their velocity pitched them into a more abrupt fall about a meter and a half beyond. Hillary fell hard onto a stone floor; the torch shattered as he landed on his left hand with a sickening crunch, and the metal end drove the air from his lungs with a whoosh. He gasped to refill his lungs as Bryce's loud cursing trailed off.
"Are you all right?" Hillary felt his left wrist; definitely broken, and shards of glass from the lens had embedded themselves in his hand.
"Me leg hurts like..." Bryce yelped and cursed again.
"Don't move." Hillary moved towards the sound of Bryce's voice, finding his shoulder, and gently moving his hand down to Bryce's leg. The protruding tibia was unmistakable. "You have a compound fracture. Don't move that leg."
Hillary moved to explore their surroundings. They were in a circular stone pit, not more than twenty meters in diameter, and deep enough that Hillary couldn't feel the lip when he jumped with his right arm upraised.
Hillary felt around the perimeter of the wall, his hands seeking any chink in the mortar that would serve as a handhold. But the stones were smoothly joined, and slick from the underground damp. He only succeeded in scraping his fingers raw.
"Any luck?" Bryce's voice sounded from the dark behind him.
xxxxxx
Hillary sat down, spent. He wasn't one to give up, but he had been struggling for what he estimated was over an hour, and he could see no way out of the trap.
"You know, it isn't dying I mind so much..." Bryce pondered. "It's dying from such a silly trap." Hillary's answering bark of laughter was near-hysterical. "I think that's about all."
"Well, now would be the time to take care of any last-minute regrets, I suppose," Bryce said. His hand blindly fumbled for Hillary's face, and found it.
Hillary's surprise at being kissed by Bryce was substantial enough to render him speechless for a moment - time enough to discover that he was being kissed rather well. Unexpectedly soft lips moved over his as a lean hand stroked his cheek. When he opened his mouth to protest, a sly tongue slipped in, and he gave up. Their tongues danced with dizzying sensuality. The kiss was as deep and solid as the blackness around, and it had not gone on for nearly long enough when they heard footsteps above them, and a familiar voice calling, "Hillary? Bryce?"
"Lara!" Hillary cringed when he heard the squeak his voice emerged as.
"Hello, boys!" A light flashed down on them, and they both flung up forearms against its painful brightness. "I saw a Jeep outside with a very familiar-looking pack inside, and thought, no, it couldn't be... Trying your hands at adventuring, boys?"
"Lara!" barked Hillary. "You never checked in or answered your phone!"
"Blimy, girl, were we supposed to sit with thumbs up our arses while you might be dyin'?"
"Oh, er, yes." From behind the torch, Lara sounded slightly embarrassed. "You see, I got sand in my phone, and it stopped working. And I thought there might be a few other tombs of this type in the vicinity, so I explored out… only a few kilometers radius from here, really. I was going to call you as soon as I reported the new chambers in this tomb with the University, I swear..."
"Lara," ground Hillary, "You can make your own bloody tea this week."
xxxxxx
They hauled Bryce up with a rope from Lara's survival pack. Hauling up Hillary was more challenging, as he outweighed Lara enough to prevent her dragging him out, but she found a broken spot in the stone wall that served to anchor her grapple. She flopped on the lip of the pit and helped his one-handed scramble as soon as he was within reach. They climbed the stone ramp - which had purchase enough, if you hadn't just been unexpectedly dropped on it - and exited the tomb. Lara tossed their gear into her Jeep and motioned them into it.
"We'll tell the company where we left it and pay their fee." Hillary helped Bryce into the back, and they enjoyed a rapid ride back with a highly enthusiastic narrative from Lara. Hillary hated to interrupt, but as they approached the city, he nudged Lara. "Drop us off at the hospital, then go report your find at the University. They'll be done patching us up by then." She shot him a grateful look.
Bryce had been uncharacteristically silent during the trip, and avoided Hillary's eyes as he helped the slender man inside. Hillary considered what to do as they were being tended. He did not have to consider long; his duty, to both the stability of Lara's household and to the man he had come to regard as a friend, was clear. He walked down the corridor to Bryce's room. The smaller man sat in bed and flipped nervously through a book, his leg splinted and sutured. His uneasiness became palpable as Hillary walked in. "Oh, hullo... I, er..."
Hillary covered Bryce's mouth with his own and kissed him fiercely. Although duty and pleasure did not always intersect, who was he to complain when it did?