Rick
had no idea how many of the prison guards would be following, or
in fact, how
many of them cared. It was pretty well known around
Cairo that
unless you had a good price on your head, not too many
would bother
to chase you; and it was fairly obvious that his own
price had
already been paid by the Legion just to be rid of him, but
he imagined
Drake could be a different story. Rick had no idea of
what this
man was in prison for or who he'd upset along the way, so
getting off
the street was a high priority.
O'Connell weaved
his way along the streets with Drake following
closely. He
couldn't help but notice the excitement on his
companion's
face and wondered just how long he'd been locked away.
Rick put his
hand to Drake's shoulder "This way" he panted and led
him to the
front door of Izzy's pathetic Aeroplane Business. Finding
the door locked,
Rick easily scaled the broken wall and called for
Drake to follow.
Once inside,
the pair looked about for any sign of life. "Might have
known he'd
be long gone.' grummbled Rick as he walked towards an old
table. He
stooped to reach beneath it and triumphantly pulled out
his gun bag.
He looked over to Drake with a satisfied smirk on his
face and spoke
"What exactly were you locked up for, anyway?"
*
Bey's sudden
anger startled Evy. She pushed Jonathan towards the
door and tried
to smile at her boss. "Perhaps we should come back
when you're
feeling a little better," Evy soothed, drawing Jonathan
quickly from
the room while Bey began to advance. "I'm sure you'll
feel better
tomorrow."
And with that
Evy yanked her brother out of the office, closing the
door on Bey's
face before he could grab them. "He's not very happy,"
she commented.
*
Drake looked
warily around the deserted place O'Connell had dragged
him into.
It was better than nothing he guessed. Shrugging at the
American,
he exhaled and promptly sat himself down upon an empty
chair. "The
honest truth is the jailer's bastard brother was a mark
of mine. You
don't drop a contract once you've taken it and I didn't
know he had
any relation. So, I accepted and poisoned the man. He
had it coming,
even the warden agreed that much, but family is
family. So,
they caught me and locked me up."
Stretching
comfortably, happy to be out and about again, Drake sized
O'Connell
up. "I'm still part of the local crime organization. You
wanna try
your hand at a life of crime?" The large, dark man smiled
and waited
a reply.
*
"That all depends
on what you mean by crime" Rick responded absently
as he checked
his personal arsenal. He threw a pistol to Drake who
caught it
with natual talent. "Ya know how to clean one of them,
right?" to
which Drake nodded.
"Ya see, I'm
not gonna hang around and be your hired assassin, but if
you're talking
about finding lost items or robbing from the rich, so
to speak,
then yeah, I could be interested." Rick sat next to Drake
and both men
sat silently as they each cleaned the weapons, then Rick
spoke thoughtfully
"I guess you'd have the sort of connections to
help me find
a theif?"
*
Drake leaned
back and polished the gun in his hand thoughtfully. So
O'Connell
wasn't interested in being an assassin. There was always room in
Drake's gang
for theives. "Yeah, we deal in anything that brings in the
money, O'Connell."
He paused and moment and regarded the light man before
him. "You
say you're looking for some thief? Yeah, my boys can find him,
but there
are certain people I can't just hand over, you know. Officials
and the like."
*
Rick smiled
broadly at his companion and chuckled "No, I'm not
looking for
anyone too local. The guy I want is English, likes to
play cards
and drink." Drake listened, only half interested at
first, until
O'Connell continued "....and sneaky with his hands, a
pickpocket.
He lifted something of mine during the fight that landed
me in the
cell next to you. Not much, just a small box. But I have
a feeling
it could lead to something a lot bigger!"
Drake leaned
far back in his seat, lifting it's front legs from the
ground. His
expression had turned to serious thought as Rick made it
clear that
once Carnahan was found, the task of retrieving the item
would fall
solely to himself...not to Drake or his thugs...and if
things did
lead to a pot of gold then they could negotiate the terms
and settlement
then.
*
The door to
his office slammed shut and the retreating footsteps
of Jonathan
and Evelyn Carnahan could be heard into the distance.
Dr. Bey stood
frozen to the spot, anger and disbelief rising within
him.
The Carnahan's
were not overly important, more of an annoying
interference
in a much larger story. Removing them from the picture
should still
prove to be a straight forward task. No, his anger was
directed at
himself. His appointment to the museum was solely to
prevent outsiders
from learning of Hamunaptra in the first place, let
alone allowing
them to be in the position of holding the creature's
key! Surely
this was a simple task, one in which he felt he had
failed miserably.
However, the
situation called for urgent action, there was no time to
be wasted
lamenting lost opportunities. Dr. Bey hurriedly scribbled
information
and instructions onto a piece of paper and neatly folded
it. He then
called for his courier.
*
Drake waved
his hand thoughtfully. He inhaled deeply and rocked his
chair back
and forth a bit, then settled on the floor. "Okay.
There's a
bar a few streets down from the prison, west of the place.
It's called
"The Hungry Jackal" or some other nonsense name like
that. I can't
rightly recall." He grunted and O'Connell nodded,
seeming to
recognise the place. "The barkeep there works for the
local crime
lord, Ahmed, the man I work for. I'll tell him to settle
up on a price
with him and he'll give us the information."
The large assassin
then grinned at O'Connell. "Of course, I'll have
to settle
up with you and pay Ahmed back or he might want to teach
you about
the more serious side of throat cutting." The American
smirked at
that and looked down the barrel of his gun. He was going
to like this
man, he decided.
*
Evy and Jonathan
walked away from the museum and to the home
they shared
that had belonged to their parents. Her eyes were bright
and excited
as she looked at the paper in Jonathan's grasp. "Isn't
this exciting?"
she asked, looking at him and grinning.
*
O'Connell packed
the last of his barrel sights and rolled up the
gun bag. It
was obvious that Drake wasn't going to return the pistol
which he'd
tossed at him earlier, but Rick figured he could keep it
as a deposit
for services yet to be rendered. He was beginning to
see just how
alike he and his new friend were.
Rick stood,
motioning for Drake to follow. "Well, I'm done here.
Unless you
know anything 'bout aeroplanes?" Drake grinned, shaking
his head and
rose to join the American. "So I guess now I follow
you!" and
he stood aside to allow Drake to lead the way slapping him
on the shoulder
as he passed "You help me find this English guy and
I'll promise
you the prize!"
