- Text Size +
“I am afraid you are too late,” the curator of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo told Nick, Diamond, and Styx as they approached her, fresh off their flight from Italy. “I just received word from the guards that someone has stolen our most prized manuscript of the Book of the Dead.”

“Damn,” Nick muttered as he and his companions followed the curator while she walked down the hallway.

“I don’t understand how this could have happened,” the curator continued. “We have an immense amount of security guarding this building because of the great amount of antiquities we house here. There’s not a moment that any piece in this place is not being watched.”

“Then, with all due respect, Ms...?” Diamond began, realizing that she’d never introduced herself to them.

“Oh, I’m sorry, how could I be so rude?” The curator turned around and smiled at them, extending her hand to them. “My name is Evelyn. Evelyn Carnahan. Everyone calls me Evy.”

“I go by Diamond, Evy.” Diamond shook her hand. “How did she get away with this if there’s always someone watching?”

“I don’t know, Diamond.” Evy sighed. “I was just about to head to the main security office to get some answers when you arrived. Shall we?” She motioned to the large marble staircase in front of them, and they all walked up together as Evy continued to explain the situation as best as she could. “What she took was one of several different Books of the Dead that we have, but she picked the most expensive of them all. You see, there were several versions of the Book of the Dead, and we have a selection of copies on display from different periods of ancient Egyptian history.” Evy stopped as they stood in the middle of an expansive library. “This room is filled with rare and expensive books, not unlike the caliber of the Book of the Dead. But none of them are as recognizable as the Book.”

“That fits with her motive. She seems like she wants the attention as much as she wants the books themselves,” Nick commented.

“And you are…?” Evy asked.

“Nick Carter,” Nick said with a smile.

“Nice to meet you, Rick.”

“My name is Nick.”

“Yes, of course, Rick. Anyway,” she continued, leading them further into the room before Nick had the chance to correct her again, “The room where the Books are held is just beyond that door.” She pointed to a doorway flanked by two large men in security uniforms. “In each room, there are at least half a dozen high-tech cameras covering each corner, to make absolutely sure there are no blind spots for anyone to hide—or steal. The Books were kept in glass display cases outfitted with heat and pressure sensors placed not only in the edges of the glass but the book displays themselves. As soon as she moved that glass and picked up that book, we knew about it.”

“And those men were here the whole time?” Diamond asked.

“Them, and two others placed inside of the room on patrol, and two others posted at the other exit to the room. We’re all at a loss as to how she managed to blend in with the crowd and escape their sights.”

“We should go and look at those security tapes,” Diamond said, the end of her sentence fading away from Nick’s hearing as he wandered down an aisle of shelves and skimmed the spines with his fingers. He was never all that interested in ancient history—or history at all, for that matter—but Ancient Egypt always seemed pretty cool to him. He stopped as he saw a ladder leaning against one of the bookshelves and decided to climb up and get a better look at some of the other books.

“Yo Nick, where are you?” Styx called out. “Evy’s taking us to the-” Styx stopped as he caught up to his mentor. “What are you doing?”

“Just… investigating, that’s all,” Nick replied casually.

“But we don’t even know if she stopped in here.”

“I didn’t say I was investigating the case.”

“Please tell me you’re not looking for stuff about mummy’s curses and all that junk.”

“I wasn’t really looking for anything, but thanks for the idea, dude!” Nick said, giving Styx a quick thumbs-up from his place high up on the ladder.

“Nick! Styx! Where did you run off to?” Diamond called. Styx tapped Nick on the leg and gave him an urgent look.

“Chill, man. Go find Diamond and tell her I’ll be there in a second,” Nick instructed him. Styx shook his head amusedly as he walked away.

Hmm… mummy’s curses… Nick thought to himself as he looked at the books in front of him. Well, this one looks interesting… He pulled at the spine of one of the books, grunting as he tugged at the book and realized how tightly it had been wedged in. He yelped in surprise as he successfully pulled the book out, but now found himself balancing on the ladder as it stood on its own in the middle of the aisle, having pushed away from the bookshelf as Nick pulled on the book. He dropped it immediately as he clung to the ladder with both hands and tried to move it back towards the shelf.

“Nick, what the-“ Diamond began as she, Styx, and Evy came running as soon as they heard the book drop. The wing of the museum they were in had been closed off as soon as the robbery was discovered, so they knew they were supposed to be alone in this room.

“Be careful, Rick!” Evy exclaimed.

“My name is N- whoa!” Nick screamed as he fell forward, crashing into the bookshelf, and they all watched in complete shock as each bookshelf in the room got knocked over like a set of large dominoes, resulting in a long, loud crash that settled in a pile of dust as the last bookshelf fell back on the first. Thankfully for Nick, he had already rolled himself out of the way, albeit on the opposite side of the disaster as the others.

“Nick, didn’t this country suffer enough when they got hit with ten plagues?!” Diamond reprimanded.

Styx tried to suppress his laughter as he stood between the two dumbfounded women. “You’re a walking catastrophe, dude.”

Evy sighed as she looked around at the damage Nick had caused. “I should hope nothing has been destroyed in this room, Rick…” Nick considered speaking up to correct her once again, but decided against it considering the expression on her face as she looked at him. “… Or mummies, curses, and the Book of the Dead will be the least of your worries.” She began to walk away, motioning for the others to follow her. “Oh, and you were looking in the wrong place.” Diamond and Styx just sighed as they looked around while walking behind Evy.

“Um, guys? How am I supposed to get out of here?” Nick asked, running his hand through his hair as he realized he was trapped on all sides by collapsed bookshelves.

“I guess you’ll have to clean your way out!” Diamond called out teasingly, not looking back behind her.

“Don’t worry, Rick, I’ll have a crew sent in to assess the damage and begin the repairs immediately. They’ll get you out,” Evy told him. “For now, time is of the essence, and we really must find this girl before she leaves the country with the Book.”

Nick growled in frustration as he watched Diamond and Styx leave the room with Evy. Styx turned around and shrugged at Nick before following Diamond out of the room.


± ± ±


Forty-five minutes later, Diamond, Styx, and a slightly calmer Nick walked out of the museum. They still had no real leads on Tanja, and no idea how she had managed to steal the Book of the Dead, but they decided to head back to their hotel and further analyze what evidence they had.

“Hey guys, check it out,” Nick said as he put on the novelty pharaoh hat he bought at the gift shop on their way out. “Im…ho…tep… Im…ho…tep…”

Diamond rolled her eyes as she snatched the hat off of Nick’s head and shoved it back at him. “I can’t believe you’re already back to joking after you nearly destroyed thousands of dollars worth of ancient historical documents! K is gonna have your ass when he finds out.”

“Not if we catch Tanja, he won’t,” Nick defended as he tossed his hat back into the shopping bag. “Besides, I only nearly destroyed them. They were okay, and so my ass will be, too.”

“We have nothing to go on! And thanks to your screwing around, she could be long gone by now. We know she never sticks around for long.”

“Yeah, but we’re catching up to her now. We’re getting close; I can feel it.”

“Pardon me if I don’t trust your gut very much right now, Nick,” Diamond said. “It’s the same gut that told you to wander off in search of mummies.”

“Oh, come on, haven’t I suffered enough?”

Diamond sighed. “For now, I guess.” She stopped as they reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around. “Maybe we should stop at a café on the way to the hotel. I’m famished after all this excitement; we haven’t eaten since Milan.”

Nick put out his arm and gave Diamond his trademark grin. “Shall we?”

Diamond simply smiled back in reply and linked her arm with his as Styx walked behind them.

“I don’t know how he does it…”


± ± ±


A few minutes later, they decided to stop at a café nearby the museum, the first one they had spotted. As they sat at a table in the dining area outside, Nick couldn’t help feeling like he was missing something.

And then he saw it: a flash of blonde hair and the sway of a long trenchcoat, as a young woman walked past their table.

His body stiffened as he focused on her, trying to get a good look at her, but she was doing her best to stay concealed and looked at though she was guarding something in her arms.

“Guys, check out the girl who just walked by.” He paused as they slyly glanced over and then looked back at him, having come to the same realization. “Look familiar?”

“She’s going to get away,” Diamond warned. “We have to go after her now.”

“Count of three, we get up and corner her. One…” Nick calmly pulled out his wallet and dropped some cash on the table to cover their bill. “Two…” Diamond reached for her jacket casually as they all started to get up from the table. “Three!” Nick jumped up the rest of the way and hopped the small fence separating the restaurant from the sidewalk.

“Stop, thief!” Nick yelled as he pointed at Tanja, who hopped onto a nearby motorcycle and sped off, leaving Diamond and Styx to watch from the empty space she left behind. Nick looked around frantically as Diamond and Styx rejoined him, and that was when he found a solution. “Quick, hop on!” Nick patted the back of the motorcycle seat.

“We’re not all gonna fit on that, Nick,” Styx commented as Diamond slid onto the seat, put on the helmet Nick handed her, and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“I picked this one for a reason, Styx; now get over here and hop in.” Nick nodded next to him, and as Styx got closer, he saw the motorcycle had a side car.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Styx mumbled to himself as he jumped into the side car and quickly put his helmet on, while Nick tore down the street in search of their elusive culprit.


± ± ±


Styx was still gripping the sides of the side car tightly five minutes after Nick had turned off the main highway they’d been driving down for at least an hour, as they weaved through traffic, trying to catch Tanja. Nick knew she was running out of places to lose them, and when she made a sharp turn down a pier, he knew she was getting desperate.

“Nick, stop!” Styx called out. “Look out!”

Nick hit the brakes suddenly, and Styx braced himself to avoid flying out of the side car. Tanja had driven off of the pier and landed on a waiting speedboat. She then jumped off of the bike and got behind the controls of the speedboat.

“Hold on tight; I think we can make it!” Nick called to them over the roar of the motorcycle engine as it still revved beneath him.

Styx looked up at him, horrified. “Dude, you can’t-“

“Watch me!” he cut him off, leaning forward and narrowing his eyes, as Styx said a silent prayer, and Nick tore off down the pier, feeling briefly triumphant as the motorcycle left the pier, before it flipped over, and the three of them fell into the water. “SHITBALLS!” he screamed as he surfaced, hitting the water angrily.

“My hair! Ugh, just when I thought it couldn’t suffer any more!” Diamond moaned. “You idiot, didn’t you realize the side car made our motorcycle heavier than hers?!”

“Obviously not!” Nick said, motioning to the water surrounding them. “Wait a second, where’s Styx?”

“Right here!” he shouted, a couple of feet away. “Enough of this bullshit; we gotta catch this girl NOW!” he called out to them, mumbling as he swam over. “Nearly got my ass flattened by a bookshelf, smushed on a highway, now drowned? Aw, hell no!”

“Calm down, dude, we’ll get her,” Nick said.

“How? How can we possibly catch up with her now?” Diamond asked, incredibly annoyed.

That’s how.” Nick pointed at another boat approaching them, and they all swam out of the way to let it dock at the pier. Once the owner had gotten off the boat, they managed to climb up onto it and sped off after Tanja, getting her in their sight within minutes.

Diamond took over the controls to try and get closer to her, while Nick took out his—thankfully waterproof—cell phone and called Jay.

“Jay here.”

“Hey man, we got here too late to stop her from taking the Book of the Dead, but we caught up with her outside of the museum,” Nick explained, deciding to leave out his mishap with the ladder and bookshelves. Knowing Diamond, half of HimTak already knew, and it was only a matter of time before it got to Jay—and K. “We’re on her trail now, but who knows what other tricks she’ll try to pull.”

“Well, I was actually just about to call you, Carter. We just figured out that she’s probably headed to Turkey next. I think this is gonna be the big showdown.”

“Turkey? Are you sure?” Nick said.

“Yes, Carter, I’m positive,” Jay replied sternly. “So stay on her trail, and if you lose her, just meet us in Cappadocia.”

“Cappuccino??”

“Cappadocia,” Jay growled. “It’s a region in central Turkey. Mapquest it.”

“Got it. But I don’t plan on losing this chick again, bro.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just get here one way or the other. We’ll get her.”

“Kay. Bye.”

“Bye,” Jay replied, and Nick looked up at Styx and Diamond as he hung up the phone.

“Get ready to head to Turkey. Jay thinks that’s where she’s going next, and that this will be the big face-off.”

Diamond sighed. “She’s gotta be getting as tired as I am of all this travelling.”

“I really hope so,” Styx chimed in, in agreement, as he stood at the front of the boat and kept tabs on Tanja.


± ± ±


A few minutes later, Nick decided that if this was really going to end in Turkey, he was going to get in one last phone call to the FBI.

“Agent-”

“TOMMY BOY!” Nick yelled into the phone.

“Carter,” the agent replied through gritted teeth, and Nick snickered as he realized how much he really was pushing the man’s buttons with these phone calls.

“Ya know, I’m really gonna miss almost bumping into you like this,” Nick said.

“Because you know we’re going to catch you very soon? We’re on to you, Nick. We know you’re in Cairo.”

Nick scoffed. “Oh, please. Cairo is so lame…o. Too much old stuff and not enough mummies and curses. I thought it would be more like Scooby Doo. Zoinks!”

“Keep making fun, Nick; you know we’re getting close…”

“Not even.” Nick paused for a moment and heard frantic shouting on the other end of the phone call. “Hey Tommy Boy, you got a refrigerator running?”

Tom sighed. “Okay, I’ll play along. But isn’t it ‘IS YOUR refrigerator running?’”

“No, you misunderstood me. What I meant was, you got a refrigerator running your operation over there? Seems like a head of cabbage has more brains than all of you guys.”

“Excuse me?”

“Gee, look at the time! I’m sorry I don’t have time to spell this out for you, Tommy Boy, but my world tour is almost over! We’re going to a place nearby! Gotta go!” Nick said quickly, hanging up before Tom had the chance to respond.


± ± ±