Vol 5: Chapter 3-1.
3 (1/3)
By noon of the next day, O’Connell brought everyone to Giza port. Evelyn and her brother Jonathan were already waiting there. They let out a sigh of relief after they saw O’Connell but at the same time they noticed Zheng’s group who were following behind O’Connell and showed signs of caution.
Evelyn was rather straightforward, once O’Connell came close, she asked immediately. “Didn’t you say you are only bringing us? Why are there so many people? Just to make it clear, I won’t pay for their expenses. You, you’re O’Connell?”
O’Connell was covered in dirt while he was in jail but after cleaning up and getting new clothes, he looked rather handsome. Before he had the chance to reply, Evelyn was totally stunned. “H-hi…”
“Haha, today’s a nice day for adventures. There’s no harm in having more people… but are they trustworthy? Of course, you know I am referring to the gold. There isn’t enough gold to split among so many people…” Jonathan laughed as he asked O’Connell in a low voice.
O’Connell nodded. “Yeah, the weather is suitable for adventures. As to them, they are probably not interested in gold. Plus they will protect us in the journey… What I am more concerned about…” He reached into his pockets and took a look at his wallet.
Jonathan was a skilled thief. He laughed awkwardly. “Don’t worry, I won’t steal from our own people. Hoho, you mentioned they aren’t interested in gold. Then that means… they are rich?”
Zheng walked over to the three of them and laughed. “Hoho, I heard what you said… My name is Zheng Zha, and these are my comrades. We are an expedition group sponsored by an American billionaire. Our mission is to find all the possible secret places in the world… Of course, the legendary city of the dead is one of the secret places. We will take care of the expenses in the journey and provide you with adequate protection. Of course you have have to listen to our advice and not do anything that will put us in danger. That’s basically it.”
Evelyn had been staring at O’Connell the whole time and didn’t wake up until Zheng began talking. “Wh-what! We didn’t join your expedition group! We are looking for the city of the dead as a private individual, why do we have to listen to your advices? We don’t need you to pay for our expenses, we can afford them ourselves…”
Zheng shook his head and said. “I think you’re mistaken. Our mission is exploration, we are not interested in the gold…”
Her reaction intensified. She almost shouted with her face red. “I understand it now. Your goal is the Book of the Dead and Book of Amun-Ra right? Impossible! Even if such ancient literatures exist, we couldn’t hand them to some rich guy. These literatures are historical treasures, I won’t let you have them!”
Zheng noticed people around were giving them strange looks, and even sensed some hostility. He shook his head and said. “Fine, fine, fine. We are not taking anything ok? Just for exploration, exploration only… Aye, women… everyone is a paranoia.” Then he boarded the ship.
Evelyn still wouldn’t give up. She pulled O’Connell’s shirt. “Can you promise they are saying the truth? I don’t care, you brought them here! You have to promise they wouldn’t take those two books. Otherwise, I warn you…”
O’Connell could only smile with bitterness, especially when he saw Zheng’s group had already boarded the ship…
Anyway, he finally took care of Evelyn and by the time he boarded the ship, Zheng had already bought the majority of its first class rooms with his gold. And Jonathan seemingly became best friends with him after receiving a gold nugget. Of course anyone who had seen the movie should know to avoid him, because he was a capable thief.
“Following this river, we will get off the ship by tomorrow noon. Then we will walk west for about half a day and reach the biggest and only oasis on the way to Hamunaptra. That’s also a place for merchants to exchange items. We will then buy the camels and supplies. After that we will go south west and we should reach it after three days and nights if there are no accidents…”
O’Connell opened up a crude map on the table and said as he pointed to the various locations.
Evelyn asked. “Accidents? What accidents?”
O’Connell didn’t say anything. He suddenly threw his bag on the table and opened it up. The bag was filled with handguns, rifles, and bullets. Enough for everyone of them.
Evelyn was shocked. “I… Did I mistaken anything? We are there for expedition right? Or are we there for a war?”
O’Connell didn’t answer her and loaded a handgun. “Lady, that place isn’t safe… There’s something under the tomb and it was guarded by a mysterious group… It is literally the city of the dead.”
Evelyn immediately turned to Zheng. “Didn’t you say you will protect us? I only want those two books, you can take everything else… Even though my brother believes there are treasures but I don’t think you can actually find gold…”
Zheng nodded. “I told you we were only there for exploration. We are not interested in anything else… but you seem to be familiar with those two books.”
Evelyn replied excitedly. “Of course, the legendary Book of Amun-Ra, also called the golden book of revival (different from the movie), and the Book of the Dead. These two books contained ancient Egyptian spells. They made me fall in love with Egypt…”
Suddenly, Honglu interrupted her. “What time is it?”
They were taken aback for a moment. Zheng looked at his watch and said. “Ten o’clock…” He paused and saw Honglu nodded.
Lan had told everyone the plot of The Mummy in the inn last night. Perhaps due to her enhanced mental capacity, she had amazing memory and told them every little detail of the plot.
Zheng then remembered that they would be attacked by the Medjai at night time, about this hour.
“Evelyn, go get the ke-… go get the map and that puzzle box. Zero and Jie go protect her… O’Connell, come find Jonathan with me, he should be playing poker with the Americans. Everyone else take guard here. If anything happens, then follow Lan, Tengyi and Yinkong’s orders… Let’s go. The story starts!”
Zheng stood up and took out his progressive knife from the ring, then headed to the deck.