To Be Shown the Way (a Mummy 1999 fanfiction)

Believe

Evelyn made her excuses to the curator, apologizing for disturbing him, pretending to believe the map wasn't what it plainly was, and hurried out of his office. She hoped she'd been sufficiently convincing that he would forget all about it.

As soon as they were outside the museum, map safely refolded in the little box, Evelyn turned to her brother. "Talk."

"What do you mean?" But he was looking around guiltily, and she knew she was right.

"You know more about this box than you're letting on. Where was this dig, who were you with?"

"I ... really can't tell you that. Confidentiality is so important, as you know ..."

"Jonathan."

"What?"

"If we can't find out more about this box, how can we follow this map to all the buried riches of Egypt?" And the Book of Amun-Ra, said to be buried at the feet of a statue at Hamunaptra. With that book in her hand, Evelyn's career would be secured. She could spend the rest of her life studying it.

"Oh. Good point." He glanced around them, then took her arm. "Come with me."

"Hold on."

"Why?"

"I'm getting my hat." Going out without one, an English lady on the streets of Cairo, would cause more trouble than it was worth.

He took her to Cairo Prison, which was as filthy and smelly as Evelyn might have imagined. Worse, if anything. And the Warden was equally both. Evelyn wrinkled her nose as Jonathan explained who they were looking for.

"You told me that you got it on a dig down in Thebes!" she said to Jonathan in some outrage as they followed the warden.

"Yeah, well, I was mistaken."

"You lied to me."

"I lie to everyone." Which was the truth. "What makes you so special?"

"I am your sister."

"Yes, well, that just makes you more gullible."

That, too, was the truth. By now, one would have thought she'd be wise to her brother's ways, but she insisted on seeing the best in him. Evelyn frowned at him. "Jonathan, you stole it from a drunk at the local casbah."

"Picked his pocket, actually," Jonathan corrected, tugging at her arm and trying to pull her back toward the gates. "So I don't think it's a very good idea—"

"Jonathan, will you stop being so ridiculous." Evelyn had come here to find out about that puzzle box, and she was going to. Raising her voice, she addressed the warden. "Now, what exactly is this man in prison for?"

"Well, this I did not know. But when I heard you were coming, I asked him that myself."

"And what did he say?"

"That 'he was just looking for a good time'."

The cell door opened and a group of guards came out, with a large man fighting them every step of the way. To Evelyn's surprise, he was English, not Egyptian. The guards dragged him up against the metal bars keeping him back, and he grasped them, glaring at Jonathan and Evelyn. Which seemed uncalled-for. After all, they weren't responsible for him being here.

She glanced with some suspicion at Jonathan, wondering if it was possible ... after all, he had known the man was here. Could he have had something to do with whatever got the man imprisoned?

A final blow to the back by one of the guards sent the man to his knees.

Evelyn pointed at him. "This is—this is the man that you stole it from?"