Disclaimer: I don't own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
"So, we're going to enter an ancient Egyptian tomb at night... according to the guidebook the inscription on the foot of the statue next to the entrance means Beware, intruders. A horrible death awaits all those who dare to walk where our kings and queens rest. Lovely."
Winston looked around the eerily quiet necropolis. Crumbling ruins in a chilling desert night and no soul around. "You don't happen to have any experience in this field, do you? Some job for Joubert that taught you how to deal with curses, undead queens and inexplicable phenomena?"
"Mummies are dead by definition, dude. No need to waste money on us."
"Wiseass."
"Suddenly you're believing in that supernatural shit, Winston?" It was too dark for him to see, but Winston was quite sure Chance was laughing.
"No, I'm not. But we all know there might be all sorts of traps – spears flying out of nowhere… fire falling from the ceiling… floors suddenly giving way… moving walls that squash intruders… and what about those spores that got to John Gray?"
"Dude, next time there's an Indiana Jones marathon on the movie channel, no TV for you."
"Those spores got to John Gray because he was in direct contact with the corpse… there was a Scarab amulet underneath the bandages Sam Fisher was after." Chance nodded at Winston, indicating that he should help lifting the mummy's sarcophagus. It came in handy that Guerrero's guys had put it into a square-shaped wooden box, easier to grip. Together they carried it into the mastaba.
"By the way, you've forgotten the more exotic obstacles: Giant rocks rolling towards the intruders, acid puddles, boiling oil, spiders of all sizes, bewitched skeletons of unfortunate grave robbers…."
"It's great you're having fun, Chance", Winston grumbled.
"…not to mention real live ones…" Guerrero, who had led the way with a flashlight, suddenly stopped. There was another light at the end of the corridor they were walking down. A very bright light, meant to illuminate one of the larger chambers of the mastaba.
Collectors all over the world were willing to pay surprisingly huge amounts of money for real Egyptian wall paintings to adorn their own living-room walls with. Given the current state of the country, with no one really in charge, these artifacts were a lot easier to come by lately. Equipped with hammers and chisels, whole families entered the less prominent tombs at night and removed what for centuries had been hidden and reserved for the dead alone to see.
Opportunity makes thieves.
Heavily armed thieves, in this case. And they didn't hesitate – they opened fire the second they noticed they weren't alone anymore. Guerrero fired back while Chance and Winston with the sarcophagus retreated quickly into a side chamber. Shouting from the mastaba's entrance indicated that more grave robbers were pouring in. Apparently there had been someone on the lookout that hadn't been up to the job and now tried to make up for his blunder.
They were trapped, cornered in a room with only one exit by at least half a dozen grave robbers. So far Guerrero and Chance were able to hold the door, but for how long?
Chance's cell phone rang, but he was definitely too busy to take the call.
A second later Winston's cell phone rang. He checked the display and rolled his eyes. As if they didn't have their hands full already. "This better be important, Ames…"
"I've thought long and hard and it's just not okay that you sent me home and totally left me out of Egypt!"
"What is this? An official complaint? Doesn't Ilsa have a form for that?"
"I've done research on that Tetisheri chick. Did you know she was called the meanest queen of the eighteenth dynasty? She knew all the dirty tricks in the game – ever crossed your mind I might have wanted to see where she lived? This was meant as some sort of vacation and you left me out."
"Trust me, Ames, you don't want to be on this vacation!"
Chance and Guerrero, in the meantime, had come to the conclusion they needed to pull a Nephew Otis. With the help of some ammunition they planted a makeshift charge at the door. Running away from the threshold, Chance fired at it, causing it to explode. Its impact blew all of them off their feet and threw them against the far end wall of the chamber.
Which started moving.
And the floor started moving, too.
Thanks to the sand covering the ground they lost their footing almost immediately – as if on a giant chute, they slid toward a hidden chamber underneath the mastaba, the box with the mummy bumping against them during the fall. It didn't help that all that was happening in complete darkness, since all the men's flashlights had gone out.
"Who's banned from watching TV now?", Winston shouted at what he assumed was Guerrero.
They unceremoniously landed on the floor of the hidden chamber. Judging from the sound of it, the wooden box around the mummy's sarcophagus burst into sharp shreds from the impact, but the sarcophagus itself felt intact.
Guerrero switched his flashlight on again just in time to see the chute sliding upwards again. Originally this would have probably sealed the room shut – Tetisheri, meanest queen of the eighteenth dynasty – now it remained half way open, most likely because of the explosion Chance and Guerrero had caused. The mechanism seemed to be damaged. The grave robbers would soon follow them down here.
Oh, great, now they were cornered in an Egyptian tomb below ground.
Guerrero let the flashlight's beam wander around the walls. It revealed enormously beautiful wall paintings. Not to mention quite a few statues, vases, pieces of jewelry lying around… They had found Tetisheri's original resting place.
"This is…", Winston began, open-mouthed.
"Beautiful", Guerrero finished his sentence.
"We won't be able to protect it." Chance's voice in the darkness, void of any humor. "Even if we went out and killed every single grave robber, others would come follow. All of this will soon be scattered all over the world…"
"There must be something we can do…", Winston mumbled. The contrast between the mesmerizing pieces they were looking at and the truth of Chance's words was hard to take. There had to be some kind of way out! Chance always came up with some, granted, crazy plan, but there always in the end was a plan that would save the day. This here, all these artifacts, meant to honor this dead women, they belonged here, right here, in this grave, in Egyptian earth.
But this time there was no plan. No matter how they turned, there was no way to protect this treasure, keep it intact for generations to come.
"Let's at least put her where she was supposed to rest, even if it isn't for long", Chance finally said. "And then we'll have fun with the robbers."
Together they lifted the sarcophagus and carried it into the middle of the room, where there was obviously a place reserved for it – embedded into a thick marble block was a shape on the ground that fit the sarcophagus perfectly. They had no problem at all fitting it in.
For a moment, while above their heads the grave robbers were hacking and scraping their way towards them, all three men stood still.
It was only a short moment, though, since a second after they had laid the mummy to rest, the ground began to vibrate again. The far end of the room began to move towards them.
"It'll squash us!", Winston yelled. Chance tentatively jumped toward the broken chute, maybe if he could get up there he could lift his friends, although, with his arm… the wall stopped moving.
And revealed an exit to the outside, right behind it.
Winston, Chance and Guerrero hurried outside. The cool night air embraced them with a fresh breeze and above them a million stars suddenly seemed to sparkle. A split second after Chance had exited the tomb the wall slid back into place, and not only that – another thick wall moved in front of it and judging from the sounds inside the same thing was happening.
Of course at first they just stared at the ancient building that so suddenly had come to life. Then, not keen on another encounter with the grave robbers, they hurried off to get back to their hotel.
… … …
Later that night Guerrero speculated that the moment they had fitted the sarcophagus into the marble block, some sort of mechanism must have been set in motion, not unlike the workings of a contact mine. A system of sandglasses and weights had probably, once initiated, coordinated the whole sealing process.
In the morning, despite all the unrest in the country, what had happened in the necropolis in Thebes made headlines throughout the media. Some "innocent strollers who had wanted to enjoy the atmosphere of the town of the dead" – wow, the grave robbers had come up with an explanation for their presence fast – told reporters how they had witnessed a mastaba all of a sudden starting to seal itself shut.
Experts explained to the general public that the sealing mechanism was so effective, it was not possible anymore to get to the below ground level of the mastaba. Attempts would definitely result in a complete destruction of the building and its contents. Whatever was inside would remain untouched and protected forever.
"Looks like Tetisheri took matters in her own hands", Winston mumbled and this time nobody laughed at him for believing in supernatural shit.