Alex was keeping a to-do list in his head.
1) Find the girl who had helped him steal the key and find out what this was all about.
2) Do this without his brother and that woman finding him beforehand
3) Somehow travel through time to warn his former self not to steal the disc so that this wouldn’t occur.
4) Eat breakfast ‘cause he was really hungry
5) AND MOST IMPORTANTLY – work out where the hell he had hidden the disc last night during his drunken wanderings.
He raced through the streets of Cairo, his head spinning with scenarios. That woman had to be the buyer that the relic merchant had mentioned and she somehow knew that he had taken the disc.
She must have found that girl, he couldn’t remember her name, it wasn’t important anyway. He sort of remembered her face and he remembered that damn glint in her eyes. He had to find her and his best bet was the market square.
The thing was it was too early in the morning and the square was empty. The stalls were only just opening up.
“I need to ask one of them about her, surely someone must know her,” he thought.
Asking the relic merchant was out of the question, so the next best thing was to ask the shopkeeper next door.
The guy didn’t have much stock, just souvenirs and a few other pieces of junk.
“Good morning!” he exclaimed to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper turned to see who addressed him.
“Gee he looks like he needs a holiday,” Alex thought to himself.
He described the girl to him but the guy looked preoccupied and answered his questions vaguely. Alex knew he had to cut his losses. It was time to try a different approach.
As he exited the shop Step 2 came into play. It seemed his brother and the buyer had caught up to him and was entering the square. After a fair bit of cussing he quickly stepped back into the shop and went round the shopkeeper and out the back door. The guy half-heartedly called out to him to stop but Alex paid no attention.
Standing outside now, Alex took an opportunity to see what his brother was doing. He slunk around the corner of the building and peeked around the corner.
Alan and the woman looked to be scanning the area. He couldn’t let them find him before he could set things straight. No disc was worth this kind of trouble. His best option now was to hide somewhere until they gave up their search and left.
He looked around and saw an old shed filled with logs. That would be perfect! He moved quickly from his position into the shed what he found was more than he could ever have hoped for. It looked like this place had a cellar of some sort. He knew luck had to strike sometime.
As he made his way down the stairs he put his hand against the wall. It felt damp and cold.
“Ew,” he muttered in disgust.
He took his hand away and stood in the cellar but something didn’t seem right. This place was more than just a wine cellar. He seemed to feel the same eeriness he had when he entered a graveyard. He looked at the ornaments and saw inscriptions on the wall. Below there was another floor covered in old flowers. This had to be a tomb.
He turned around and bolted up the stairs and out into the sunlight forgetting the reason why he had sought shelter in the tomb. It was too late before he realized that the woman he was hiding from had seen him.
She ran towards him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt shaking him with surprising force.
“Where is the key, you worm?”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Alan run back into the square. It looked like it was all over. Step 3 on his list was impossible; it seemed unlikely that he’d have a chance to complete step 4-
“I don’t know! I had it but I seemed to have misplaced it. I can find it though! Please don’t hurt me!”
She released him from her grip.
“You have three days. I will visit the camp each day to check on your progress. If you don’t find it in those three days I will turn you over to my employer and he is somebody you don’t want to get involved with,” she said with clenched teeth
It looked like Alex had skipped to step 5. Now all he had to do was piece together what he had done last night…
And that was going to be harder than expected.
