- On the Way to Egypt
The morning sun rose in the sky, as the sunlight from above shone through the curtains of each occupied room in the hotel. This lightly awoke Lara from her sleep, and she rubbed her eyes to shake off the weariness from them. It had been an eventful evening, but Lara was ready for whatever today was going to throw at her. Remembering for what she saw as an empty room yesterday night when she rappelled down to Ayesha's suite, Lara was particularly curious to know whether she would turn up for breakfast or not.
After a shower and a change into some casual clothes, Lara made her way downstairs to meet up with Eric Cooper and the rest for breakfast.
"Good morning Lara, I hope you slept well." A smiling Eric Copper greeted Lara as she came down the hotel stairs.
"And a good morning to you Eric, yes I did thanks very much, how about you?" Lara replied, returning a smile back at him.
"Yeah not too bad thanks, you ready for some breakfast? Ayesha is waiting for us in the dining room. She has made a good recovery from her illness yesterday." Eric explained to Lara.
"Good to hear Eric, I'm glad to know she has recovered. I am also intrigued to know what she had gone down with before. Alright then, lead the way Eric." Lara added, as they proceeded onwards through the reception hall.
Lara followed Eric towards to where they held the exquisite banquet last night; the whole dining room had been cleaned up over night and prepared for the morning meal. The other guests of the hotel were either present at the humongous set out table, or were probably still in bed fast asleep.
As both entered the room, there indeed in Lara's field of vision at the corner of the table was Ayesha having a bite to eat of her breakfast while reading a newspaper. Ayesha didn't even take notice of Lara as she stood there with Eric Cooper and carried on reading through the text of the papers. It was not until she sat down beside her that Ayesha noticed Lara's presence.
"Morning Ayesha, what happened last night? I was told that you were taken ill that very evening after we went our separate ways." Lara asked, she decided it wasn't best to tell her that she'd sneaked into her room last night to check if she was alright.
"Morning Lara, sorry I wasn't present at the banquet last night, but yeah as they said I became too ill to attend. After I took a shower, I just felt really tired and started to feel unwell. I can't really explain what it was, and to be honest after I sent a message down saying that I wasn't too well, I think I just fell straight to sleep and didn't get up until 6:00 this morning!" Ayesha explained to her.
Lara nodded with what Ayesha had say, listening closely to her explanation. But in fact Lara was unconvinced and already knew that somewhere along the line in her reasoning, Ayesha wasn't being truthful. Because of this, Lara became even more wary and distrustful of Ayesha, and she knew there was more to this than meets the eye. However, Lara kept that to herself, and she carried on the conversation.
"Ah okay, well I'm happy you're feeling much better now." Lara replied, giving a weak smile to Ayesha.
"Thanks same here...I wonder what we're doing today?" Ayesha added, as Lara drank some of her orange juice and then started to eat her breakfast.
By this time, Eric had caught the essence of the conversation between Lara and Ayesha. He soon afterwards stood up and answered the question that was on everybody's mind who was involved in this adventure of discovery.
"Well everyone we have brilliant news, thanks to our discovery in the jungle, we are heading to Egypt today! Once we've all finished breakfast, we will get ourselves ready to depart from the hotel." Eric happily announced at the table. Everyone cheered at the statement, as they all finished eating their breakfast and then they had begun to depart back to their rooms.
Lara got her belongings together from her room, and headed back downstairs into the reception area. From there, people were gathered waiting for the cars to arrive to take them to the airport. The time was now 11:05 as Lara saw on the main clock in the reception, and there was still no sign of the cars on the hotel estate. Eric Copper, who was stood near the doorway kept glancing at his watch and then looking outside with growing frustration. Finally the 3 cars had parked up just outside the entrance of the hotel, and the main driver came dashing up the stairs.
"Apologies for the delay Mr. Copper, we had to take a few detours as some of the roads were closed due to maintenance." the driver said with exhaustion from running up the stairs as fast as he could.
Knowing that Eric didn't like people being late, and seeing his frustration earlier, Lara was expecting him to shout at the driver. However instead Eric reacted differently and spoke in an assuring manner.
"Well no matter, it's only about 20 minutes late, and we still have time to catch our flight at the airport." Eric shrugged, and then smiled at the driver. The driver was in quite disbelief at what he had just heard, but he nodded and smiled back to his employer.
"Thank you Mr. Copper, now is everyone ready to depart?" the driver asked with some relief in his voice.
"Yes, I believe we are all ready, let's go!"
With that, everyone who was involved with this expedition picked up their luggage and began to leave the hotel. One by one they entered into either one of the three cars that was present. Lara followed the small cue through to the hotel exit, up ahead she saw Ayesha and Eric waiting for her there. They went to one of the parked cars and once the driver had started the engine, they followed on with the other cars to the airport.
The journey to the airport didn't take as long as expected, and soon they were once again within Eric's company aircraft, making their way to Egypt. It was going to be a 6 hour flight from India, and they were scheduled to arrive around mid-late afternoon. As before, the specialised plane was arranged uniquely having different cabins and two main areas, one was a lounge type of area and the other was where conference meetings were held. Lara wondered how many of these exclusively designed aeroplanes Eric had in his possession.
"Hello all, we have a range of refreshments like drinks and snacks onboard, may I take any orders?" One of the cabin members inquired to the passengers.
Each person present in the lounge had ordered at least one drink, and they sat down on the comfortable chairs around the large space. A variety of jazz music was playing through the speakers, and it was at least 10 minutes since they departed from the airport, when out of the blue a question came up amongst them.
"So Mr Copper, any news from the team in the Sahara Desert?" Matthew Corbin asked; he was the leader of the technology division at Eric's company.
"We haven't received any word yet, but I believe that the team will find something very soon, it is a huge area and we don't really know what we're meant to be looking for."
"How would we know if we found the right place?"
"We shall search through the area thoroughly, if there is any clue or anything trying to conceal something important, we will know. Tim Lampshire, head of our research team is currently in Egypt, having travelled there yesterday night he is overseeing the search until we get there later on today."
"But...It might take months, even years until we find something." Jennifer Brown, the managing director of the company pointed out.
"Time is just a factor that we have to ignore; we must find the next piece of this puzzle..."
"Why though? Why go to all this trouble?"
"I believe we are on to something big here, and I am eager to find out what we could discover from all this, it could be something... marvellous."
From this Lara knew that Eric had been told something very recently about the artefact, she could tell by the change of tone in his voice and the look in his eyes as he said that sentence. She did not hesitate to ask what it was he had been notified on about the artefact.
"So what did you find out about the artefact me and Ayesha found in the ruins?" Lara enquired to Eric.
"As of yet nothing much, but I have been informed by our researchers that it holds a mystical power that hasn't been truly unlocked. My best guess is that if we follow on from what you have both told us and find the other two artefacts, we will have the capacity to unlock this supposed power" Eric explained with interest, even though he didn't like the question.
"But if you were able to find out about this power that the artefacts hold, what would you intend to do with it?" Lara further questioned Eric. She could also see his reluctance in answering the question.
"We shall see... I can't really give you an answer at this point in time" Eric responded.
Though Lara was not surprised by the reply Eric gave, she quickly noticed Ayesha giving her a sudden harsh stare for a second after Eric answered the question. 'What's gotten into Ayesha? I've never seen her like this before' Lara thought, as she realized that she would have to keep a close suspicious eye on her friend once they get to Egypt.