The Curator sits at his desk, staring through a jeweler's eyepiece at the key/box. Evy and Maggie hover behind him, excited.
"See the cartouche there, it's the official royal seal of Seti the First, I'm sure of it." Evy states to the Curator
"Perhaps." He replies in a short answer as Johnathan leans in from across the desk.
"Two questions. Who the hell is Seti the First? And was he rich?" Johnathan asks with all seriousness causing Maggie to roll her eyes.
Maggie answers her brothers questions, "He was the last Pharaoh of the Old Kingdom, said to be the wealthiest Pharaoh of them all"
Johnathan smiles greedily, "Alright, good, that's good. I like this fellow, like him very much!"
The Curator picks up the map, "I've already dated it, this is almost four thousand years old. And the hieratics over here... It's Hamunaptra." Evy says. Maggie gets a chill up her spine.
The Curator freezes, suddenly very nervous, then quickly recovers, "My dear girl, don't be ridiculous, we are scholars, not treasure hunters. Hamunaptra is a myth."
Johnathan soon jumps in, shocked, "Are we talking about the Hamunaptra?"
Evy looks to her brother, "Yes. The City of The Dead. Where the early Pharaohs were said to have hidden the wealth of Egypt."
Johnathan then states, "Right, right, in a big underground treasure chamber. Everybody knows the story. The entire necropolis was rigged to sink into the sand. On Pharaoh's command, a flick of the switch! And the whole place could disappear beneath the dunes."
Maggie adds, "All we know is that the city mysteriously vanished around 2,134 B.C."
As the siblings were going back and forth with each other they didn't notice the Curator lift the map up to a candle, "As the Americans would say: it's all fairy tales and hokum."
The map sets ablaze causing the Curator drop it to the floor. The three siblings dive down to put the flames out, "You burned it! You burned off the part with the lost city!" Jonathan cries out.
"It's for the best, I'm sure. Many men have wasted their lives in the foolish pursuit of Hamunaptra, no one has ever found it, most have never returned." The Curator sternly explains. Jonathon looks to still be in disbelief"You killed my map." He whimpers out"I'm sure it was a fake, anyway, I'm surprised at you both, to be so fooled." The Curator scolds the girls. The Curator reaches for the box. Maggie quickly snatches it off the desk and gives him a very angry, suspicious look.
Cairo Prison
Cairo prison. One of the worst hell holes on earth. Every low-life form of scumbag can be found here. The warden, a first rate scumbag himself, escorts Evy, Maggie and Jonathan across the gallows courtyard. Maggie rests hand protectively on her stomach, Evy whispers to Jonathan, "You told me you found it on a dig down in Thebes!"
"I was mistaken." Is all Johnathan says, already fearing for his life. The last time he lied to his sisters he got punched by Maggie, and the fact that she was death glaring him wasn't helping him either.
"You lied to us!" Evy shouts at her older brother obviously upset.
Johnathan shrugs, "I lie to everybody, what makes you so different?"
Evy looks to him in disbelief, "We're your sisters."
Johnathan shrugs again but in fear, "That just makes you more gullible."
"You stole it from a drunk at the local Casbah!?" Evy yells at her brother even more upset. Maggie keeps her mouth shut knowing when she starts up she won't be able to stop.
