Rise of the Fallen Princess (Ahmanet - The Mummy)

Chapter 4 - The Return of Evil

After a violent skirmish that lasted almost an hour, without any explanation, the terrorists had fled and disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, leaving the squad of American soldiers and the members of the archaeological team in the complete misunderstanding. Apart from two of the pilots, no other deaths were to be deplored, only two wounded soldiers and also Dexter Loomis who had had one of his legs grazed by a projectile and now bore a slightly bleeding scratch on his skin. Sitting on a rock, Dexter let the squad medical officer examine the wound.

_"Hmm, it will be fine, the muscle and the bone have not been affected, it will be necessary to at least disinfect and apply a bandage."

Dexter was relieved, he who had started to panic when he felt the pain. However, the situation was still catastrophic for the group. One of the choppers was a smoking carcass, and the other two choppers had suffered substantial damage in the shootout and neither of them was able to take off despite attempts to repair them. The radio operator had set up his equipment and was struggling to send SOS to Al-Asad air base, hoping that Colonel Burns would respond and send reinforcements to evacuate them urgently. Meanwhile, Corporal Campbell, who had shown exemplary composure during the confrontation, had dragged the dead body of a terrorist killed during the shooting and examined it with one of his men and Jonathan from Mirand. Something was wrong with what had just happened.

_"I don't understand... How did those motherfuckers know where we were? It was like they were waiting for us." Campbell growled.

_"That's not the only strange thing, corporal, look..." added Jonathan, who with an observant eye had examined in detail the dead terrorist's equipment. "Do you see his weapons? They are not Iraqi-made. They are very sophisticated models and far too expensive for terrorist organizations...More than that...these weapons are American."

Campbell observed in turn and actually recognized this model of assault rifle, one of the last models recently put into service within the American army, and nowhere else. This discovery left a bitter taste in the corporal's mouth.

_"Mr. de Mirand, you think that..."

_"Alas, yes. Someone provided weapons to these terrorists, and I would not even be surprised if our position has been also disclosed."

_"But... I thought you were the only one who knew all the details of this expedition." Campbell said, confused.

_"I thought so too." Jonathan breathed, his eyes dark. "But the question now is: who would do that, and why?"

Meanwhile, Professor Sandra Winters had stood on the edge of the gaping hole that had been left open by the impact of the rocket. She watched intently, trying to break through the bottomless darkness of the chasm.

_"Mathias? Can you hear me?!"

For long minutes, she persisted in calling the young man in the hope of hearing an answer from him, but silence remained master. Her student, Dexter, joined her, limping slightly after the doctor applied a light bandage to him. Seeing Sandra grit her teeth and more than worried about Mathias, Dexter felt bad for her.

_"That's enough, I'll go get him." she finally said with resolution, but Dexter's arm held her firmly.

_"Stop, madam, all you're going to do is to break yourself. We don't even know how deep it is, or even if Mathias is still..."

He couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence, but Sandra guessed perfectly what he meant. She wanted to tell him he was wrong, but deep down, maybe he was right. Sandra blamed herself, but there was no point complaining. The woman then turned to Jonathan and decided to talk to him in person.

_"Monsieur de Mirand! Tell me, what do you intend to do for Mathias? We can't leave him in this hole, something has to be done!"

_"What do you want us to do? All our climbing and abseiling equipment was in the helicopter that exploded, we have nothing left!" Jonathan reminded her while trying to stay calm.