Chapter 6-





Rick O’Connell was pissed. No, he wasn’t just pissed; he was raging, boiling mad. He had just gotten off the phone with someone from South America. He had to face the facts. He was worried as hell. Three times a month, his favourite cousin, Ravena, would either call him or send him a letter. She was the only family he had left. Well, not counting Evy or Alex, hell, maybe even Jonathan. But he still loved her like a sister. When he was going in and out of orphanages, she was the only reason he never broke down crying. But lately she hadn’t contacted him. Normally he wouldn’t care, but even Paris would send him a picture almost every week! He had dozens of her drawings, along with Alex’s of course, hanging on the refrigerator. But the pictures had stopped coming. That set him off. He called an old friend of theirs who lived with Ravena in Brazil, and he told Rick what happened. How the Nazis came and stole them away. How Hitler wanted Ravena to do an expedition in Egypt. Rick had known that she was a spy, and he had known that she had kept the amulet. When that thought struck him, he raced down the hall to find Evelyn. He opened the door to their room and found her sitting on the bed reading another one of her damn books. She looked up, surprised at the urgency in his eyes.

“Evy, honey, I need your help.”

With that Rick went across the room, tore off a piece of paper, and drew the picture of the amulet. He then told her everything about his cousin and how the Nazis had kidnapped her and her daughter. He handed Evelyn the drawing and she examined it. After she looked at it for a moment, her eyes widened and she looked up shocked.

“Rick! It’s the key to the tomb of the Star of Hephaeliates. It’s one of the most valuable treasures in the world!”.

Her husband stood there for a moment, waiting for it all to sink in. After awhile, quietly but with much determination, he said.

“Get packed, we’re going to Egypt.”


Ardeth sat in his tent with two other Medjai waiting for an upcoming meeting with Rafe Steinburger, in which he was definitely not looking forward to. After the way Rafe treated Ravena, Ardeth hated the man. Although he convinced himself it was only because he was a Nazi, deep inside he knew it was for another reason. Sati, his commander, looked at him questionably. He saw how Ardeth reacted when he saw the white woman come out of the car, and wondered why he didn’t EVER express his feelings. He was, after all, only human. Sati was a new replacement of an old commander. The old one, Majil, had betrayed the Medjai by attempting to murder Ardeth. Of course Ardeth had been much stronger they Majil and defeated him. But instead of killing him (that was the penalty of attempted assassination on a leader) he banned him from their “turf”. He knew Majil was planning on attacking the Medjai soon, the only question was “when”.

All three of the men’s head shot up when one of their guards ushered Mr. Steinburger in. Ardeth glowered. The obviously nervous man was twiddling his hat around his fingers and looking around the room anxiously.

“Sit.”, barked Ardeth.

The man stumbled to a cushion on the hard floor.

“Well, Mr. Steinburger, our question is, how much longer do you think you will be?”.

Rafe stared at him in disbelief, then replied uncomfortably,

“But, Mr. Bey, we JUST started! We can’t possibly finish so soon! It will take at least a couple of months, maybe even a year!”.

Ardeth sucked in a breath when he heard this. This was not very encouraging news. In Egypt, the Medjai might protect the desert, but they do not own it. Rafe knew this well. Fortunately, there are no laws in the desert, thus the Medjai were in charge. Rafe knew this as well.

“Well then, Mr. Steinburger, if you already know the location of this >treasure>, why not take the woman back to Germany? This is no place for a woman.”

Rafe shook his head quickly.

“It’s more complicated then that. You see, the woman never came willingly.”

With that he pulled out a picture (the proof of life) of a little girl (obviously Paris) holding a daily newspaper. Ardeth’s heart stopped. She looked exactly like Ravena. Just as beautiful. Rafe continued on..

“The woman used to be a spy for the English government. She tried unsuccessfully to attain top secret papers from us. This we could not allow. Hitler found out she had some sort of amulet, given to her by her father, but she escaped. We looked for her for years, and finally found her in Brazil, with her 4-yr. old daughter, Paris. We unfortunately had to separate them to make Miss. Desmias help us in our search.”

Ardeth stared at this man in disbelief. He dared to split up a mother and daughter just for information. Ardeth could only imagine the pain Ravena was going through,

“Get out.” He replied darkly.
The anger in his voice urged Rafe to scramble onto his feet and get the hell out of there. Sati and the other Medjai stared at Ardeth uncertainly. That was Ardeth’s most threatening voice. What was going on?

The next day, Ardeth and his men were going through some new fighting strategies when Sati came riding upon his bay horse and pulled up next to him.

“Ardeth, you had better come see this.”

Ardeth followed him over to the dune in which they were spying on and saw something that disturbed him greatly. It was Majil, talking to Rafe Steinburger. It wasn’t until Majil shook hands with Rafe and pointed into a certain direction. The direction was Hamunaptra. Ardeth couldn’t be sure if his ex-commander told the Nazi about the city of the dead until later on, when half the camp packed up and started to get ready to go to Hamunaptra. That, sadly he noticed, included Ravena, who looked extravagant in her blue summer dress that showed off her lovely legs. He remembered his vow and pushed her away from his thoughts. There was no doubt in his mind that Rafe knew about the treasure, he had broken a promise, and for that he would pay.

When dusk settled in, and Ardeth was sitting on a dune looking at the sky, a young Medjai came along and handed him a telegram that had been sent from Cairo, which had been sent from England. He knew only 4 people in England, and that was O’Connell, Evelyn, Alex, and Jonathan. His instincts had been right, it was O’Connell. What he had to say surprised him a great deal.

Dear Ardeth, I need your help real bad. My cousin, Ravena, has been kidnapped and is in Egypt right now. Not too far from Hamunaptra in fact. I need your help in saving her. She is only there by force. I am unfortunately bringing my whole family along (we couldn’t find a babysitter for Alex) and we need a place to stay. I’m sorry for springing this on you pal, but hell, I’m desperate. I love Ravena like a sister. Please take care of her. Could you get someone to come to Cairo and help us out, that would help a lot.
Your pal, Rick

Ardeth sighed deeply. It was going to be good seeing his old friends again, but who knows what’s going to happen with them around. He placed the telegram close to his heart. Normally he wouldn’t care about saving a woman who wasn't even from his culture, but to know she was related to Rick changed everything. He got up, brushed himself off, and walked briskly towards his tent. When he arrived, he said to the other Medjai..

“We attack tomorrow night, spare no one except for the woman, it’s personal this time.”