SB/Kierra: We're back!!
Annie: And with a new chapter!!
SB/Kierra: Thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter!!
Annie: We don't own anything except our OC's.
SB/Kierra: Enjoy!!
Two months later Joe Hardy and his friend Biff Hooper are in a truck with Nancy Drew and her friend Bess Marvin. Joe and Biff bumped into Nancy and Bess when they were at the airport, on their way to Egypt. Joe and Biff were going to see Frank who is helping to restore the sphinx and Nancy and Bess were going to Egypt for a mystery free vacation. Now the four of them were in a truck on their way to the sphinx, Joe and Biff had asked if the girls wanted to join them and they had agreed.
"Wow! How cool is it that Frank has spent the last six months here in Egypt?" asked Bess as they drove along.
"Well restoring the great sphinx may be a trill, but I can't wait to see him again and the look on his face when he sees us." Said Joe, who was sitting in the front with Biff, who was driving the truck.
"Hang in there, Joe. This old truck will have us there in a jiffy." Biff said as he glanced at his friend before the truck sputters to a stop.
"You were saying?" Nancy asked from the back next to Bess, as the four of them got out as Joe looks at the engine.
"Bad news guys. It looks like the radiator is out of water." Joe said.
"Well now what are we going to do?" Bess asked.
"Find help." Biff answered.
"We're in the middle of the desert, how are we going to find help out here?" Bess demanded crossly.
"Hey is that a vulture?" Nancy asked as she looked up.
"That's no vulture. It's a hawk." Joe said as they all looked up at the bird.
"Hey it looks like we have company." Bess said pointing at something.
"Hello, I am Ali Mukhtab, at your service." The man said with a bow as he sat on a camel.
"We were on our way to the sphinx when our truck over heated. Do you know were we might find some water?" Biff asked after they had introduced themselves to him.
"I'm sorry my friend, but there is no water here." Ali Mukhtab said.
"Now what are we going to do?" Nancy asked.
"Come, join my caravan. We travel east, towards the flowing waters of the Nile River. There you will find what you are looking for." said Ali Mukhtab.
Soon they came to the Nile River but something was not right about it.
"How much further is it to the Nile River?" Bess asked as they came to a stop.
"This IS the Nile River." Ali Mukhtab said sounding surprised and confused.
"Okay. So what happened to the 'River' part?" Joe asked as the camel that Ali Mukhtab was riding lay down.
"Our journey together has come to and end. I must find water for my camels." Said Ali Mukhtab as he unhooked the truck from his camels.
"But how are we supposed to get to the sphinx?" Biff asked.
"You have already arrived, my friend. It's just over that hill. Big statue, pyramids in back. You can't miss it." Ali Mukhtab replied, pointing.
"Well thanks, Mukhtab. Hope to see you again." Nancy said.
"If the fates allow it, so shall it be." He replied with a bow before leading his camels away.
"Okay so lets go." Said Bess after a while as the others agreed.
"We made it, guys! The pyramids and the sphinx of Giza." Joe said as they looked at the view before them.
"Isn't that cool?" asked Biff.
"Oh wow!!" breathed Bess and Nancy.
"Come on guys, let's go find Frank!!" Joe said as he started downward.
"I hope the curse will keep most of the hunters away." Rachel said as Joe, Biff, Nancy, and Bess stopped a few feet from them.
"Even if it doesn't, we WILL make them go, sis." Richard assured her.
"Sooner or later a big time treasure hunter will show up and try their luck with the curse." Frank said as Rachel spotted Joe and his friends behind Frank.
"Speaking of people showing up, it looks like you have company, Frank." Rachel said pointing as Frank looked behind him and his eye lit up as he smiled.
"Joe, Biff, Nancy, Bess!! What a surprise!! What are you doing here?" Frank greeted them.
"There haven't been any mysteries to solve since you left, and I just decided to see you." Joe explained, Frank knew that his baby brother was bored.
"We decided to come for a bit of a mystery-free vacation and we bumped into Joe and Biff at the airport, and they said that you were here so we decided to join them." Nancy explained as Bess nodded here head.
"Where did you get that necklace?" Bess asked as she points to it, around Frank's neck.
"It isn't mine, I found it. It's an ancient Egyptian symbol called an ankh. Some day it will go to a museum, where it rightfully belongs. Guys, this is Richard and his twin sister Rachel, they are the ones who asked me to help restore the sphinx. Frank explained.
"Our uncle is the one who really is in charge of the restoration of the sphinx, we are second in charge." Richard said after the introductions.
"Frank, when we walked up, you had said something about treasure hunters?" Biff said.
"Ever since our discovery, we have been besieged by treasure hunters." Rachel explained.
"What kind of discovery?" asked Bess.
"We'll gladly show you, the ankh is one of them." Frank said as they walked along.
"But first let us introduce you to a close friend of ours. Khafa Ra-Atum, or if you prefer, the Great Sphinx of Giza. Carved out of the living rock 4,000 years ago." Richard said proudly as he indicted to the sphinx they were restoring.
"We also heard you say something about a curse." Nancy commented, as Richard and Rachel exchanged glances.
"We uncovered a tomb... which is said to be cursed." Frank explained somewhat hesitantly, but before any of them could say anything else, a sound reached their ears.
"What's that sound?" Joe asked as a helicopter appears over head along with a bunch of vehicles.
"Did someone order a swat team or what?" Bess asked as they shielded their eyes from the dust that the helicopter disturbed.
The helicopter lands and a cloaked figure gets off the helicopter which then leaves, Bess notices that Frank, Richard, and Rachel scowl at the new arrivals, obviously they weren't happy that the newcomers where here.
"Just as we feared. Rachel we must act quickly." Richard said as he looked at her as she nodded her head.
"Ah. The great sphinx. Nice kitty. Purr for mama." The cloaked figure said.
"Dr. Abigail Van Derrick. Lovely." Frank grumbles with a glare at the cloaked figure.
"Who's she?" asked Biff.
"She's a notorious archaeologists and world-class treasure hunter." Rachel explained.
"You mean treasure thief." Richard corrected his twin before pulling out his cell phone, "This is Richard. I must speak to my uncle... Hey!!" his cell phone was yanked out of his grasp.
"I'm sorry, but your call has been disconnected. Permanently." Abigail said as she shut the phone and tossed it to one of her men who crushed it in his hand.
"Secure the perimeter. We work alone." Abigail said to her people.
"Dr. Van Derrick, you must leave here at once." Richard said as he ran up to her.
"And you are?" Abigail asked as she looked him over.
"Richard Jenkins. My uncle left me and my sister Rachel in charge of this excavation." Richard said.
"How nice. Now out of the sandbox, kids. Play time is over." Abigail said as she took her cloak off and started towards the stairs that led into the tomb.
"Wait you can't go in there!!" Frank exclaimed as he stepped forward.
"Watch me." Abigail said as she looked back at him, before they all go down the stairs and Abigail lights the huge torches along the wall.
"Hello gorgeous." She said as a face on the far wall is revealed.
"This is awesome." Said Bess.
"Who is that?" Nancy asked as she points to the face on the wall in front of them.
"The greatest woman who ever ruled. Cleopatra, last of the pharaohs. Atop her head, she wears the golden crown and around her neck the ruby ankh necklace." Abigail replied, since she heard Nancy's question.
"Oh that's just like the... I mean, wow, and I thought I knew how to accessorize." Bess said; Frank had given Bess a look that said not to mention the ankh necklace that he had as the guy who crushed Richard's cell phone looked back at them.
"The tomb itself is sealed. Imagine, the crown of Cleopatra waits beyond this door." Abigail went on as if she hadn't heard what Bess had said, as she placed a little C4 into a crack in the door.
"Please wait. We have translated the hieroglyphics. 'Thus spoke Cleopatra: A CURSE ON THOSE WHO WOULD DEFILE THE SECRET TOMB OF THE PHARAOHS." Richard said as he looked at his journal.
"The Nile will fall, the desert will rise. The army of the undead will awaken and all who dare enter will be turned to stone." Abigail said with a laugh.
"The Nile will fall... Joe, we saw the River ourselves. It was completely dry!!" Nancy said reminding them of the River they saw earlier.
"But what does 'the desert will rise, mean?" Biff asked aloud.
"And 'Awaken the army of the undead.'?" Bess wondered as Frank's lips twitched, as he tried not to laugh because he knew the truth.
"Nice try, Cleo, but we didn't come all this way to leave empty handed." Abigail said to the image of Cleopatra.
"If there is an undead army down there, our equipment will detect them." said Maria, one of Abigail's team members.
"And they won't be undead for long." Said Tim, the man who crushed Richard's cell phone.
"Please, Dr. Van Derrick, in the name of archaeology, let us treat this tomb with respect. Its secrets will be revealed in time." Richard said.
"I couldn't agree more, and there is no time like the present." Abigail said as she pulled out a remote and detonated the C4 which blew a hole in the wall.
"She has just destroyed 2,000 years of history." Richard said angrily after he looked back. He and Rachel had been knocked off their feet by the explosion.
"Don't worry, brother. If the curse can't stop her, we will." Rachel said softly.
"She's right, Rich, we'll stop her." Frank said as he helped Rachel to her feet as a ghostly white vapor flies out of the hole and out into the desert.
"That's the creepiest stay fresh seal I ever heard." Bess said nervously, she was clearly spooked, as Tim goes to look out at the desert.
"Hey doc! I think you might want to check this out!!" Tim calls down to them.
They all go out into the desert and look and they see a wall of dirt and sand coming their way.
SB/Kierra: Wow that was longer that the first chapter.
Annie: I know, but there was a lot of things that needed to be done before the chapter could end.
SB/Kierra: That was a bit of a cliff hanger right?
Annie: Yes it was I decided to change where I stopped the chapter since the last sentence had originally had be the first sentence of the next chapter.
SB/Kierra: Oh...Review please!!
Annie: Bye!!
SB/Kierra: Cya!!